State-affiliated media and rights groups in Iran reported Friday that at least 10 people had been killed in the nationwide protests against the regime since Wednesday, including one man who authorities said was a member of the Basij paramilitary force affiliated with the elite Revolutionary Guards.

The demonstrations were sparked in part by the collapse of Iran’s rial currency but have increasingly seen crowds call for the downfall of the regime, posing the biggest internal threat to Iranian authorities in years.

A local official in western Iran, where several deaths were reported, was cited by state media as warning that any unrest or illegal gatherings would be met “decisively and without leniency.”

The deadly unrest prompted US President Donald Trump to warn Friday that the United States was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, which Iranian officials responded to with their own threats.

“Trump’s message today, likely influenced by those who fear diplomacy or mistakenly believe it is unnecessary, is reckless and dangerous,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X, insisting the protests were mostly peaceful and pointing to the US leader’s own deployment of the National Guard in US cities.

In a letter to the UN secretary-general and president of the Security Council, Iranian UN Ambassador Amir-Saeid Iravani called for the Security Council to condemn Trump’s........

© The Times of Israel