Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused protesters of acting on behalf of US President Donald Trump, saying rioters were attacking public properties in a speech broadcast to the people of Iran on Friday, the 13th day of protests.
In his speech, Khamenei called on protesters to "preserve unity," warning that Tehran would not tolerate people acting as "mercenaries for foreigners."
With Iran's anti-government unrest evolving rapidly and foreign pressure mounting, the clerical establishment appears unable, for now, to tackle what has become a crisis of legitimacy at the heart of the Islamic Republic.
The demonstrations, which began in Tehran last month, have spread to all of Iran's 31 provinces but have yet to reach the scale of the 2022-3 unrest sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini while in detention for allegedly violating Islamic dress codes.
Starting in Tehran with shopkeepers in the Grand Bazaar angered by a sharp slide in the rial currency, the latest protests now involve others - mainly young men rather than the women and girls who played a key role at the Amini protests.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), has reported at least 34 protesters and four security personnel killed, and 2,200 arrested during the unrest, which analysts say highlights a deeper disillusionment with the Shi'ite status quo.
"The collapse is not just of the rial, but of trust," said Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC.
Authorities have tried to maintain a dual approach to the unrest, saying protests over the economy are legitimate and will be met by dialogue, while meeting some demonstrations with tear gas amid violent street confrontations.
Nearly five decades after the Islamic Revolution, Iran's religious rulers are struggling to bridge the gap between their priorities and the expectations of a young society.
"I just want to live a peaceful, normal life… Instead, they (the rulers) insist on a nuclear program, supporting armed groups in the region, and maintaining hostility toward the United States," Mina, 25, told Reuters by phone from Kuhdasht in the western Lorestan province.
"Those policies may have made sense in 1979, but not today. The world has changed,” said the jobless university graduate.
Islamic Republic ideology does not resonate with younger generation
A former senior official from the establishment's reformist wing said the Islamic Republic's core ideological pillars, from enforced dress codes to foreign policy choices, did not resonate with those under 30 - nearly half the population.
"The younger generation no longer believes in revolutionary slogans - it wants to live freely," he said.
The hijab, a flashpoint during the Amini protests, is now being enforced selectively. Many Iranian women now openly refuse to wear it in public places, breaking with a tradition that has long defined the Islamic Republic.
In the ongoing protests, many protesters are venting anger over Tehran's support for militants in the region, chanting slogans such as "Not Gaza, not Lebanon, my life for Iran," signaling frustration at the establishment's priorities.
Tehran's regional sway has been weakened by Israel's attacks on its proxies - from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and militias in Iraq - as well as by the ousting of Iran's close ally, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Thousands of protestors march in Mashhad
Anti-regime social media news and activist accounts shared footage that appears to show thousands marching through the streets in Mashhad, blocking a major boulevard in the northeastern city. Another video, shared on X and verified by Reuters, showed protestors bringing a large Iranian flag down from a pole and tearing it up. Mashhad is notable as the birthplace of Khamenei, as well as being the second-largest city in the country, after Tehran.
People clashed with security forces in Tehran's Grand Bazaar, and cheering protesters marched through Abdanan, a city in southwestern Ilam province, other videos verified by Reuters this week showed.
In a video from the northeastern city of Gonabad, which Reuters was unable to verify, young men were seen rushing out of a seminary mosque to join a large crowd of protesters cheering them on in an apparent revolt against the clergy.
Tehran and several other parts of Iran experienced a digital blackout on Thursday as internet connectivity dropped across multiple service providers, internet monitoring group NetBlocks said, during nationwide protests against economic hardships
The Associated Press reported that attempts to call Iranian landlines and mobile phones from Dubai failed to connect, indicating that the regime may have suspended telephone service as well.
Iran’s Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi warned that any attempt by the regime to cut off Internet access would only further energize the protest movement.
“If the regime commits such a mistake and cuts the Internet, that itself will be another call to continue your presence and to take over the streets,” he wrote. “In this way, you will drive yet another nail into the coffin of this regime.”
Footage seen by The Jerusalem Post and verified by BBC's Farsi channel appears to show that protesters set fire to an Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) office in Isfahan during the protests.
Vatanka from the Washington-based Middle East Institute said the Iranian clerical system had survived repeated protest cycles by repression and tactical concessions, but the strategy was reaching its limits.
"Change now looks inevitable; regime collapse is possible but not guaranteed," he said.
In other countries in the region, such as Syria, Libya, and Iraq, longtime leaders only fell after a combination of protests and military intervention.
US President Donald Trump has said he might come to the aid of Iranian protesters if security forces fire on them.
"We are locked and loaded and ready to go," he posted, without elaborating, on January 2, seven months after Israeli and US forces bombed Iranian nuclear sites in a 12-day war.
When asked in an interview on Thursday at what point the US would intervene, given that over 30 protestors have been killed so far, Trump claimed that many protestors have been "killed by problems with crowd control" and that he "isn't sure [he] can necessarily hold somebody responsible for that."
Iran's economy is facing high inflation and other challenges, partly due to US sanctions, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, underscoring Washington's concerns about Tehran cracking down violently on anti-regime protests.
"The Iranian economy is on the ropes," Bessent told the Economic Club of Minnesota, underscoring President Donald Trump's warning to Tehran to avoid harming protesters.
"It's a very precarious moment. He does not want them to harm more of the protesters. This is a tense moment," he added.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, facing one of the most precarious moments of his decades-long rule, responded by vowing Iran "will not yield to the enemy."
The former Iranian official said there is no easy way out for the 86-year-old leader, whose decades-old policies of building proxies, evading sanctions, and advancing nuclear and missile programs appear to be unraveling.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the protests, calling them "a decisive moment in which the Iranian people take their futures into their hands."
Inside Iran, opinions are divided on whether foreign military intervention is imminent or possible, and even firm government critics question whether it is desirable.
"Enough is enough. For 50 years, this regime has been ruling my country. Look at the result. We are poor, isolated, and frustrated," said a 31-year-old man in the central city of Isfahan on condition of anonymity.
Asked whether he supported foreign intervention, he replied: "No. I don't want my country to suffer military strikes again. Our people have endured enough. We want peace and friendship with the world - without the Islamic Republic."
Exiled opponents of the Islamic Republic, themselves deeply divided, think their moment to bring down the establishment may be close at hand and have called for more protests. However, how much support they receive within the country is uncertain.
James Genn and Goldie Katz contributed to this report.