Fresh demonstrations in Iran as France, UK and Germany 'strongly condemn killing of protesters'

LAST UPDATE | 20 hrs ago

ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS have erupted for a 13th night in Iran, with people rallying in a northwestern district of capital Tehran despite an internet shutdown and deadly crackdown by authorities.

In Tehran’s Sadatabad district, people banged pots and chanted anti-governments slogans including “death to Khamenei”, in reference to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as cars hooted in support. 

Other images posted on social media showed similar protests were taking place elsewhere in Tehran, while videos published by Persian language television channels based outside Iran showed large numbers taking part in new protests in the eastern city of Mashhad, Tabriz in the north and the holy city of Qom.

The protests, which have been ongoing since 28 December, represent one of the biggest challenges yet to the country’s leadership in its over four-and-a half decades of existence.

Last night, crowds of people opposed to the clerical establishment marched through major cities, including the capital Tehran, chanting slogans including “death to the dictator” and setting fire to official buildings.

At least 51 protesters, including nine children under the age of 18, “have been killed and hundreds more injured” since the protests began, according to Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights.

This evening, the leaders of France, the United Kingdom and Germany condemned the “killing of protesters” in Iran, urging the authorities to “exercise restraint”.

“We are deeply concerned about reports of violence by Iranian security forces, and strongly condemn the killing of protestors,” French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a joint statement.

We urge the Iranian authorities to exercise restraint.

An internet blackout implemented by the Iranian authorities during the protests has now lasted over 24 hours, according to internet monitoring group Netblocks.

“It has now been 24 hours since Iran implemented a nationwide internet shutdown, with connectivity flatlining at 1% of ordinary levels,” the organisation said in a post on X. The European Union this morning called on Iran to restore internet in the country.

Earlier today, the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the protesters “saboteurs” and said the Islamic republic will “not back down” in his first comments on the demonstrations since they began.

Khamenei appeared in a speech broadcast on state TV this morning, when he struck a defiant tone and pointed the finger at US President Donald Trump.

“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”.

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“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 last night 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”.

Khamenei also said Trump’s hands “are stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians”, an apparent reference to Israel’s war against Iran last June, which the US supported and joined with strikes of its own.

He predicted the “arrogant” US leader would be “overthrown” like the imperial dynasty that ruled Iran up to the 1979 revolution.

‘Death to the dictator’

Videos last night showed crowds of people, as well as vehicles honking in support, filling part of the vast Ayatollah Kashani Boulevard in Tehran.

The crowd could be heard chanting “death to the dictator” in reference to Khamenei, 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.

Last night’s protests 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 on Thursday, urged a new show of force in the streets today.

Pahlavi, in a new video message early this morning, said last night’s rallies showed how “a massive crowd forces the repressive forces to retreat”.

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

© AFP 2026