Iran's Supreme Leader tells Trump he will be 'overthrown'

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.

Internet monitor Netblocks said authorities had imposed a total connectivity blackout late Thursday and added early Friday that the country has 'now been offline for 12 hours... in an attempt to suppress sweeping protests'.

The demonstrations represent one of the biggest challenges yet to the Islamic republic in its over four-and-a half decades of existence, with protesters openly calling for an end to its theocratic rule.

But Khamenei struck a defiant tone in his first comments on the protests that have been escalating since January 3, calling the demonstrators 'vandals' and 'saboteurs', in a speech broadcast on state TV.

Khamenei said 'arrogant' Donald Trump's hands 'are stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians', in apparent reference to Israel's June war against the Islamic republic which the US supported and joined with strikes of its own.

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'.

'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.

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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.  

The protests also represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Pahlavi, who called for the protests Thursday night, similarly has called for demonstrations at 8pm Friday.

In his latest call to action, he said in a video posted to X: 'I know that despite the internet and communication cuts, you will not abandon the streets. Be assured that victory belongs to you!' 

Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that could bring a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fuelling the protests that began over Iran's ailing economy. 

When the clock struck 8pm on Thursday, neighbourhoods across Tehran erupted in chanting, witnesses said. The chants included 'Death to the dictator!' and 'Death to the Islamic Republic!' 

Others praised the shah, shouting: 'This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return!' Thousands could be seen on the streets before all communication to Iran cut out.

'Iranians demanded their freedom tonight. In response, the regime in Iran has cut all lines of communication,' Pahlavi said. 'It has shut down the internet. It has cut landlines. It may even attempt to jam satellite signals.'

He went on to call for European leaders to join Trump in promising to 'hold the regime to account.'

'I call on them to use all technical, financial, and diplomatic resources available to restore communication to the Iranian people so that their voice and their will can be heard and seen,' he added. 'Do not let the voices of my courageous compatriots be silenced.'

Pahlavi had said he would offer further plans depending on the response to his call. His support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past - particularly after the 12-day war Israel waged on Iran in June. Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some demonstrations, but it isn't clear whether that's support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. 

So far, violence around the demonstrations has killed at least 50 people while more than 2,270 others have been detained, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

'What turned the tide of the protests was former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi's calls for Iranians to take to the streets at 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday,' said Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. 'Per social media posts, it became clear that Iranians had delivered and were taking the call seriously to protest in order to oust the Islamic Republic.'

'This is exactly why the internet was shut down: to prevent the world from seeing the protests. Unfortunately, it also likely provided cover for security forces to kill protesters.'

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.

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'.

The protests have worried many around the world, with airlines shutting down their flights to Iran. 

Turkish Airlines cancelled its five Friday flights to Tehran. And five other flights operated by Iranian airlines have also been cancelled.