Trump Scraps Talks With Iran Regime, Encourages Protesters With Promise That He Will Help Their Fight
President Trump on Tuesday encouraged protesters in Iran to continue demonstrating against the Iranian government, canceling any meeting with Iranian officials. He added on social media that “HELP IS ON ITS WAY,” but did not specify what that meant and did not clarify later when reporters asked.
Asked Tuesday by CBS what the president’s end game is in Iran, Trump said: “The end game is to win. I like winning.”
It’s a change of tone since Sunday, when Trump told reporters that he was open to Iranian overtures towards diplomatic talks. However, there is major concern among protest supporters that the U.S. engaging the regime could hurt the efforts to reform or overturn the Islamic regime.
The Trump post comes as Islamic Republic officials confirm that around 2,000 people have been killed in multi-week protests so far. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency confirmed the death count. CBS reports that the number of deaths could be much higher, ranging from 12,000 to 20,000, based on reports from medical personnel inside Iran.
ON THE GROUND
The Iranian government is violently cracking down on nationwide anti-regime protests, openly firing on demonstrations, which began more than two weeks ago to protest the country's collapsing currency.
Iranian state media has aired at least 97 “confession” videos on Iranian state media since protests began, according to a rights group tracking the broadcasts.
The Washington Post reports that the coerced confessions often include protesters making references to Israel or America, which Iran argues is proof that foreign plots are behind Iran's nationwide protests. The 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has made similar accusations.
The death toll from the current anti-regime protests appears to already e nearly four times larger than the toll from the 2022 protests, in which the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody sparked nationwide demonstrations against the Islamic regime.
MORE ON THE U.S.
White House officials met Tuesday morning to discuss response options to the protests. Back in June, the U.S. joined Israel in bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities, a war that President Trump dubbed “The 12-Day War.”
Over the weekend, White House envoy Steve Witkoff met with exiled Iranian opposition figure Reza Pahlavi, according to Axios. It would mark the Trump administration’s first high-level contact with Pahlavi, who some protesters have called on to return to be a new leader. Notably, Pahlavi’s father, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was the last Shah (monarch) of Iran until the Islamic revolutionaries brought down his regime in 1979.