On Friday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared that the Islamic Republic would not yield to the ongoing protests, which have become the largest seen in nearly two weeks. These demonstrations were ignited by widespread discontent over soaring living costs.

Protesters, expressing their dissent against the clerical regime, flooded the streets of major cities on Thursday night, chanting slogans such as “death to the dictator” and setting government buildings ablaze.

Netblocks, an internet monitoring organization, reported that the authorities initiated a complete internet blackout late Thursday. By early Friday, the country had been offline for 12 hours, a move aimed at stifling the widespread protests.

The protests pose a significant challenge to the Islamic Republic, which has stood for over four and a half decades. Demonstrators are openly demanding an end to the country’s theocratic rule.

In his initial response to the mounting protests, which have been intensifying since January 3, Khamenei adopted a defiant stance. During a state TV broadcast, he labeled the protesters as “vandals” and “saboteurs.”

In his address, Khamenei also accused former U.S. President Donald Trump of having “blood-stained hands,” implicating him in the deaths of over a thousand Iranians. This comment seemingly alluded to Israel’s June war against Iran, which had U.S. backing and involvement through its own military strikes.

He predicted the US leader would be ‘overthrown’ like the imperial dynasty that ruled Iran up to the 1979 revolution.

‘Last night in Tehran, a bunch of vandals came and destroyed a building that belongs to them to please the US president,’ he said in an address to supporters, as men and women in the audience chanted the mantra of ‘death to America’.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday insisted that the Islamic republic would ‘not back down’ in the face of protests after the biggest rallies yet in an almost two week movement sparked by anger over the rising cost of living

Chanting slogans including ‘death to the dictator’ and setting fire to official buildings, crowds of people opposed to the clerical establishment marched through major cities late Thursday

‘Everyone knows the Islamic republic came to power with the blood of hundreds of thousands of honourable people, it will not back down in the face of saboteurs,’ he added.

Trump said late on Thursday that ‘enthusiasm to overturn that regime is incredible’ and warned that if the Iranian authorities responded by killing protesters, ‘we’re going to hit them very hard. We’re ready to do it.’

He also claimed the Ayatollah was ‘looking to go someplace’ amid reports he may flee to Russia. 

Verified videos showed crowds of people, as well as vehicles honking in support, filling a part of the vast Ayatollah Kashani Boulevard late on Thursday.

The crowd could be heard chanting ‘death to the dictator’ in reference to Khamenei, 86, who has ruled the Islamic republic since 1989.

Other videos showed significant protests in other cities, including Tabriz in the north and the holy city of Mashhad in the east, as well as the Kurdish-populated west of the country, including the regional hub Kermanshah.

Several videos showed protesters setting fire to the entrance to the regional branch of state television in the central city of Isfahan. It was not immediately possible to verify the images.

Flames were also seen in the governor’s building in Shazand, the capital of Markazi province in central Iran, after protesters gathered outside, other videos showed.

The protests late Thursday were the biggest in Iran since 2022-2023 rallies nationwide sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic republic’s strict dress code.

Khamenei said ‘arrogant’ Donald Trump’s hands ‘are stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians’

The movement, which began in Tehran in late December after the value of the Iranian rial plunged to record lows

Iranian protesters on Thursday stepped up their challenge to the clerical leadership with the biggest protests yet of nearly two weeks of rallies, as authorities cut internet access and the death toll from a crackdown mounted

The movement has also spread to higher education, with final exams at Tehran’s major Amir Kabir university postponed for a week, according to ISNA news agency

Demonstrators are repeating slogans against the clerical leadership, including ‘Pahlavi will return’ and ‘Seyyed Ali will be toppled’, in reference to Khamenei

Rights groups have accused authorities of firing on protesters in the current demonstrations, killing dozens. However, the latest videos from Tehran did not show intervention by security forces.

The son of the shah of Iran ousted by the 1979 Islamic Revolution, US-based Reza Pahlavi, who had called for major protests Thursday, urged a new show of force in the streets on Friday.

Pahlavi, in a new video message early Friday, said Thursday’s rallies showed how ‘a massive crowd forces the repressive forces to retreat’.

He called for bigger protests Friday ‘to make the crowd even larger so that the regime’s repressive power becomes even weaker’.