Khamenei: Iran will not back down in the face of protests and Trump will fall
In a fiery speech reflecting the escalating internal and external tensions facing Tehran, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, asserted that the Islamic Republic “will not back down” an inch in the face of what he called “saboteurs” and “rioters,” amid the widening scope of protests that have swept the country for the past two weeks, posing a security and political challenge to the regime.
Sharp messages for both domestic and international audiences
In his second public appearance since the protests began, Khamenei directly accused the United States and Israel of fueling the internal unrest. The Iranian Supreme Leader stated that US President Donald Trump's hands were "stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians," an implicit and explicit reference to the victims of recent military operations and tensions, including the war launched by Israel with US support last June, as the source indicated.
In his speech, which was broadcast on Iranian state television, Khamenei stressed that Trump, whom he described as "arrogant," will face an inevitable fate of downfall, likening it to the fate of royal dynasties and the Shah's regime, which ruled Iran for many years before collapsing in the face of the "Islamic Revolution" and its victory in 1979. These statements reinforce the regime's official narrative that what is happening is not a spontaneous popular movement, but rather a foreign conspiracy targeting the pillars of the state.
Context of historical and political tensions
These statements come at a time when US-Iranian relations are experiencing one of their most complex and tense periods. Since Washington's withdrawal from the nuclear agreement and the imposition of a "maximum pressure" policy, the Iranian economy has suffered from severe inflation and a decline in the value of the local currency, which observers consider the real fuel driving the Iranian street protests, despite the leadership's insistence on linking events to foreign agendas.
Historically, Tehran has resorted to invoking hostility toward the United States (the Great Satan, according to Iranian revolutionary literature) during times of internal crisis to unify the domestic front and suppress dissenting voices under the pretext of protecting national security. Analysts suggest that Khamenei's invocation of the 1979 revolution and his comparison of Trump to the Shah carry symbolic weight, intended to galvanize the regime's supporters and remind them of its "revolutionary legitimacy" in the face of perceived threats.
Expected regional and international repercussions
This speech is expected to have repercussions beyond Iran's borders. The insistence on no retreat implies a continued tight security grip domestically and potentially an escalation of regional behavior through proxies, serving as a show of force abroad. Linking the protests to American and Israeli support could pave the way for further tensions in the Gulf or in other areas of shared influence in the Middle East.
International affairs experts believe that Khamenei’s defiant language closes the door – at least temporarily – to any diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions, and presents the region with open scenarios ranging from continued economic and political attrition to the possibility of sliding into limited military confrontations if the mutual pressure between Tehran and Washington continues.
