LOS ANGELES (OC).–Mowing down hundreds, if no thousands of protesters, 79-year-old President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that if the mullah government continued to liquidate protesters he would consider military intervention. Iran responded typically by threatening war with the U.S. and Israel, something neither country fears after the 12-day war in June 2025 on its nuclear facilities. Before Trump joined the Israeli War with Iran, Israeli Prime Minister exposed Iran as a paper tiger, unable to defend its own air space, giving Israel an open invitation to destroy its military defenses around Tehran and elsewhere. Trump’s warning to Iran was met with same bravado as most Iranian responses, intimidating the European Union and other Arab states but no longer Israel and the United States. Trump knows he can have his way with Iran without consequences to the U.S.
No one knows the exact number of Iranian protesters killed by Iran’s elite Republican Guard or Basij militia, though some Iranian human rights groups put the figure at 572 dead and 10,694 detained, with many facing hanging for subverting the mullah regime of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence said the protests were fomented by the U.S. and Israel, ignoring complaints by the people of rising prices without any relief in sight. Iran’s 90 million population periodically rises up to protest mullah rule, largely robbing them of most human rights, and, most recently, cutting off the Internet to prevent citizens from organizing and communicating with each other. Iranian officials blame the uprisings on the U.S. and Israel, when the public periodically protests only to be met with a brutal crackdown with deaths and arrests.
State Department officials led by Secretary of State Macro Rubio have been trying to make contact with the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Trump said yesterday that Iranian officials expressed an interest in talking but there’s no confirmation of the contact. “The communication channel between our Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and the U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is open and messages are exchanged whether necessary,” sai Esmaeil Baghael. Araqchi said the Iranian Republic was ready for war but also open to dialogue,” no clear at all that the regime wanted to communicate with the United States. Araqchi was on thin ice threatening war with the United States if diplomacy fails. Arqchi knows what happened last June when Iran battled Israel and the United States.
Ambassadors from Britain, Italy, Germany and France were summoned to the Foreign Ministry to register protests for supporting street demonstrators. Iran Foreign Minister calls the demonstrators terrorists that must be suppressed to preserve order in the mullah regime. Arqchi requested that all foreign embassies stop backing street demonstrations, something promoting anarchy on Iranian streets. Speaking to demonstrators on Tehran’s Enqelab Square today, Iran’s Parliament’s Speaker Muhammad Baqer Qalibaf said Iran was fighting “a four-front war,” economic war, psychological warfare, military war against he U.S. and Israel and today the war against terrorism,” making excuses for the brutal crackdown against street protesters. Araqchi claimed that 53 mosques and 180 ambulances had been torched by street demonstrators. Trump expressed an interest in talking to the Iranians, especially over the future of its nuclear enrichment program.
Trump has options for dealing with the Ayatollah’s crackdown on street demonstrators. Trump said arresting and killing street demonstrators. Trump wants the Ayatollah’s crackdown to end and plans to meet with his Cabinet to explore his options inincluding military strikes on the mullah regime. Shah Rezi Muhammad Pahlavi’s grandson Reza Pahlavi told Trump that the time was now to end the mullah regime, something easier said than done. Watch the carnage on the strets of Tehran cause the Trump administration to rethink what its role in managing global conflicts. Trump rand in 2024 on a planform of less foreign intervention, playing less policeman and only involving the military where absolutely necessary. Trump’s air strikes on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific have called into question his iaolationist foreign policy. Trump tries to balance his policy out with urgent foreign developments.
Trump has a lot on his plate to start military intervention in Tehran. Democrats in Congress have already tried to invoke the 1973 War Powers resolution that restricts foriegng military action without Congressional approval. Trump has a right under Aricle 2 to conduct foreign and national security policy, including using the Pentagon when necessary. When it comes to Iran, it’s such a remote problem, many foreign policy experts warn against provoking Iran into another war. “Let us be clear: In case of of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories [Israel] was well as all U.S. bases and ship will be our legitimate target,” said Qalibel, a former commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionalry Guards. Trump isn’t intimdated by threats from Iran, knowing what happened last June. You’d think Iran would take a more conciliatory apparoch to U.S. diplomacy.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
