Trump administration monitoring Iran protests for signs government might fall: Report

WASHINGTON

The Trump administration is monitoring ongoing demonstrations in Iran for signs that they could topple the Iranian government, according to a report published Friday.

"The protests are serious, and we will continue to monitor them," an anonymous senior US official told Axios.

The administration earlier this week assessed that the protests, which began in late December, lacked sufficient strength to bring down the Iranian government, but the determination is being reassessed after they gained momentum later in the week, Axios reported.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

Since late December, Iran has seen waves of protests over a steep decline in the value of the Iranian rial and deteriorating economic conditions. The demonstrations started on Dec. 28 near Tehran's Grand Bazaar and later expanded to a number of cities across the country. The country is offline for over 12 hours, according to internet watchdog NetBlocks.

Iranian officials have not released official casualty statistics. On Thursday, however, the Human Rights Activists News Agency said 2,277 people had been arrested, dozens injured, and 42 people killed, including eight security personnel.

Iran has accused the US and Israel of fomenting the unrest, with officials warning Friday that Iranian security forces and the judiciary "will show no tolerance whatsoever toward saboteurs."

US President Donald Trump warned Jan. 2 that the US would intervene if Iran kills peaceful protesters, saying on his Truth Social platform: "If Iran violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the US will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go."

Later, in comments reported on Jan. 8, Trump attributed some of the deaths during the protests to problems of crowd control and stampedes.

He said: "Well, some were killed because of, you know, crowd control issues and other things. I don't know."

Trump added that he was monitoring the situation very closely, noting the large size of the crowds.