President Donald Trump urged Iranian civilians to keep protesting and said “help is on its way” Tuesday amid a crackdown on demonstrations that a U.S.-based human rights group says has killed 2,000 people.
In recent days, Trump has upped the pressure on Tehran, warning that he may launch military strikes while remaining open to negotiations. He also slapped a 25% tariff on those doing business with the Islamic Republic, the theocratic regime that has ruled the nation for nearly 50 years.
In a Tuesday morning post on Truth Social, he wrote: “KEEP PROTESTING — TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers.” Then, without providing details, he added: “HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”
Iran has said it is open to diplomacy, while threatening the United States and Israel with retaliation if it is attacked.
Inside the country, authorities had cut internet access and foreign phone calls, choking off information about the government’s bloody response to demonstrations initially sparked by rising prices. Hundreds have been killed, activists said, with video showing bodies lined up outside a morgue near Tehran, surrounded by their loved ones crying and screaming.
But on Tuesday, some Iranians based abroad and the Associated Press news agency said they had received calls from inside the country. The internet remained down, and calls from outside the country were blocked, the news agency said.
Those who called the AP described a heavy security presence in central Tehran, with riot officers standing at major intersections, carrying batons, shields, shotguns and tear gas launchers, the news agency said.
This presence involved the Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force as well as plainclothes security officials, the witnesses said. Banks and government offices had been smashed and shops were open but there was little foot traffic, they added, according to the AP.
Though the theocratic regime claims to have restored order — through deadly force on protesters across the country, according to activists — it is coming under mounting international pressure.
On Monday, Trump said on Truth Social that he was announcing a tariff of 25% on imports from countries doing business with Iran. The country’s largest trading partners are China, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and India. This would come on top of any existing tariffs the U.S. has placed on those countries.
The protests have spread to every Iranian province and that the crowds remained huge, a U.S. official with direct knowledge of events told NBC News. The State Department has told Americans to leave the country.
The demonstrations were ignited by economic grievances as the rial currency crashed and inflation soared. Iran’s economy has been hobbled in part by sanctions from the U.S. and other international entities over the regime’s nuclear program. The protests have morphed into one of the biggest challenges the Islamic Republic has faced in its 47-year history.
The level of violence surpassed the previous round of protests in 2022 and 2023, human rights groups said.
“There is much more violence and I think it has got to do with how threatened the Islamic Republic feels,” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights, told NBC News in a telephone interview.
As of Tuesday morning, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said around 2,000 people had been killed and more than 16,780 others arrested. The organization relies on supporters inside the Islamic Republic cross-checking information.
Authorities in Iran have not given an official death toll.
Some videos that were not previously seen because of the internet blackout have been circulating on social media and NBC News has been able to geolocate to different cities around the country.
It is not clear when the footage was shot.
One video circulating on Monday showed a man lying on the street in Tehran, bleeding heavily from his abdomen amid huge crowds of protesters. Two men stand over him arguing whether he was shot by a “pellet” or “military-grade” weapon while a woman screams in horror.
Another video that circulated on Monday from the city of Urmia in northwest Iran shows a large crowd kicking and punching members of security forces, who in turn hit back with batons.
Protesters continued to call for the downfall of the regime. In a video filmed in Arak, western Iran, and circulating Sunday, the crowd chants, “This is the year of blood, Moosh-Ali will be overthrown,” a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in the country.
Iranian authorities attempted to downplay the momentum of the protests.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the situation was now “under total control.” He also told Al Jazeera that “the internet was only cut after we confronted terrorist operations, and realized that orders were coming from outside the country,” an allegation authorities have leveled against the U.S. and Israel without providing evidence.
Khamenei, for his part, said in a message that large government counter-demonstrations Monday were a sign of the strength of the Iranian people and a warning to the U.S. not to meddle in the country.
“This was a warning to American politicians to stop their deception and not rely on treacherous mercenaries,” he said, according to state media.
