{"id":196434,"date":"2026-01-10T20:51:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T20:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/irans-army-pledges-to-defend-national-interests-after-us-backs-protesters-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T20:51:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T20:51:45","slug":"irans-army-pledges-to-defend-national-interests-after-us-backs-protesters-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/irans-army-pledges-to-defend-national-interests-after-us-backs-protesters-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s army pledges to defend national interests after US backs protesters – Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran\u2019s ‍elite IRGC, which operates separately from army, also says safeguarding country\u2019s security is a \u2018red line\u2019.<\/em>
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The Iranian army says it will safeguard strategic infrastructure and public property as it urged Iranians to thwart \u201cthe enemy\u2019s plots\u201d, after United States President Donald Trump issued a new warning<\/a> to Iran\u2019s leaders over escalating antigovernment protests.
In a statement published by semi-official news sites, the military on Saturday accused Israel and \u201chostile terrorist groups\u201d of seeking to \u201cundermine the country\u2019s public security\u201d.
\u201cThe Army, under the command of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, together with other armed forces, in addition to monitoring enemy movements in the region, will resolutely protect and safeguard national interests, the country\u2019s strategic infrastructure, and public property,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s ‍elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) \u2013 which operates separately from the army \u2013 also warned \u2060on Saturday that \u200bsafeguarding ‍the 1979 revolution\u2019s ‍achievements and the \u2060country\u2019s security was a \u201cred line\u201d, \u200bstate \u200cTV reported.
The warnings come as Tehran has stepped up efforts to ‍quell the country\u2019s largest protests in years, which have seen thousands of people take to the streets in anger over soaring costs of living<\/a> and inflation.<\/p>\n

Demonstrations have taken place across Iran since late December, with growing calls for the end of the clerical system that has ruled the country since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The unrest continued overnight on Saturday, with state media blaming \u201crioters\u201d for setting a municipal building on fire in Karaj, west of Tehran, the Reuters news agency reported.
Meanwhile, Iran\u2019s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, on Saturday warned that anyone taking part in protests will be considered an \u201cenemy of God\u201d, a death-penalty charge, state television reported.
The Tasnim news agency also said at least 100 \u201carmed rioters\u201d have been arrested.
Press TV broadcast footage of funerals of members of the Iranian security forces it said were killed in protests in the cities of Shiraz, Qom and Hamedan, Reuters said.
Videos published by Persian-language television channels based outside of Iran showed large numbers of people taking part in new protests in the eastern city of Mashhad and Tabriz in the north.
Earlier on Saturday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated Washington\u2019s support for the people of Iran after the Iranian authorities cut off internet access as they sought to curb the protests.
\u201cThe United States supports the brave people of Iran,\u201d Rubio wrote on X.
The post came hours after Trump issued a new warning<\/a> to Iran\u2019s leaders, saying, \u201cYou better not start shooting because we\u2019ll start shooting too.\u201d
Trump said it looked like Iran\u2019s leaders were \u201cin big trouble\u201d and repeated an earlier threat of military attacks if peaceful protesters were killed. \u201cIt looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called the demonstrators \u201cvandals\u201d and \u201csaboteurs\u201d.
In a speech broadcast on Press TV, Khamenei said Trump\u2019s hands \u201care stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians\u201d, in apparent reference to Israel\u2019s attacks on Iran in June, which the US supported and joined<\/a> with strikes of its own.
Khamenei\u00a0predicted the \u201carrogant\u201d US leader would be \u201coverthrown\u201d like the imperial dynasty that ruled Iran up to the 1979 revolution.
\u201cEveryone 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,\u201d he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, on a visit to Lebanon on Friday, accused the US and Israel of \u201cdirectly intervening\u201d to try to \u201ctransform the peaceful protests into divisive and violent ones\u201d \u2013 claims a US Department of State spokesperson called \u201cdelusional\u201d.<\/p>\n

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera\u2019s Tohid Asadi said the protests have been growing in the capital, Tehran, and other cities.
\u201c[The protests] started sporadically, but over the past two-three days, we have been witnessing more and more protests, specifically in the capital,\u201d he said, adding that the demonstrations \u201cflared up into violence in many streets\u201d in Tehran on Thursday.
He said the state is trying to control the situation \u201cwith different approaches\u201d such as tightening security measures and introducing a new subsidy scheme for citizens.
But Mehran Kamrava, a professor of government at Georgetown University Qatar, said that the subsidy would do little to stem public frustrations over soaring costs of living.
\u201cThe inflation rate is at 42 percent, according to the government. Unofficially, it\u2019s closer to 60 percent. So it doesn\u2019t seem as if this kind of measure is going to alleviate any sort of economic pressure on the population,\u201d Kamrava told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

The demonstrations are the largest in Iran since a 2022-2023 protest movement spurred by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini<\/a>, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the country\u2019s strict dress code for women.
Rights groups and foreign governments have urged the Iranian authorities to respect the right to peaceful protest and refrain from using excessive force against demonstrators.
On Saturday evening, internet freedom monitor Netblocks reported that an internet blackout<\/a> imposed by the Iranian authorities\u00a0had lasted a total of 48 hours and remained \u201cfirmly in place\u201d.
Amnesty International earlier said the \u201cblanket internet shutdown\u201d aims to \u201chide the true extent of the grave human rights violations and crimes under international law they are carrying out to crush\u201d the protests.
Meanwhile,\u00a0the US-based son of Iran\u2019s deposed shah<\/a> has urged Iranians to stage more targeted protests, with the aim of taking and then holding city centres.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is no longer just to take to the streets. The goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centres,\u201d Reza Pahlavi said in a video message on social media, urging more protests on Saturday and Sunday.
Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights has said at least 51 protesters, including nine children, have been killed by security forces, and hundreds more injured.<\/p>\n

Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran\u2019s ‍elite IRGC, which operates separately from army, also says safeguarding country\u2019s security is a \u2018red line\u2019.ShareSaveThe Iranian army says it will safeguard strategic infrastructure and public property as it urged Iranians to thwart \u201cthe enemy\u2019s plots\u201d, after United States President Donald Trump issued a new warning to Iran\u2019s leaders over escalating antigovernment protests.In a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":196435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}