TEHRAN(National Times)- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned on Sunday that any attack on the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would mean a declaration of war. “An attack on the great leader of our country is tantamount to a full-scale war with the Iranian nation,” Pezeshkian said in a post on X in an apparent response to US President Donald Trump saying it was time to look for a new leader in Iran. Limited internet access has returned in Iran, a monitor said Sunday, 10 days after authorities imposed a communications blackout amid violent protests. Demonstrations sparked in late December by anger over economic hardship exploded into protests widely seen as the biggest challenge to the Iranian leadership in years. The rallies subsided after the crackdown amid a communications blackout that started on January 8 as the protests grew in size and intensity. Iranian officials have said the demonstrations were peaceful before turning into “riots” and blamed foreign influence from Iran’s arch-foes the United States and Israel. Trump, who backed and joined Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June, had repeatedly threatened new military action against Tehran if protesters were killed. While Washington appeared to have stepped back, Trump hit out at the Iranian supreme leader — in power for 37 years — in an interview with Politico on Saturday, saying it was “time to look for new leadership in Iran”. As leaders in Washington and Tehran have exchanged barbs, Iranian officials have said calm has been restored in the streets. Security forces with armoured vehicles and motorcycles were seen in central Tehran, according to AFP correspondents. One new banner in central Tehran showed a set of dominoes with images including the former shah of Iran, ousted Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein and Trump with the caption, “dominoes falling”. Schools reopened on Sunday — Iran’s weekend falling on Thursday and Friday — after a week of closure and authorities said “internet access would also be gradually restored”, Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday.
‘Not be spared’
On Saturday, Khamenei said “a few thousand” people had been killed by what he called “agents” of the United States and Israel, and Iranian local media has reported multiple deaths among security forces. Khamenei said authorities “must break the back of the seditionists”, as local media have reported thousands of arrests. On Sunday, Iran’s judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir reiterated that swift trials would be held, warning that some acts warranted the capital offence of “moharebeh”, or “waging war against God”. “All those who played a decisive role in these calls for violence, which led to bloodshed and significant damage to public finances, will not be spared,” he said. Alarm has grown over the threat of capital punishment against arrested protesters, even as Trump said Iran had called off hundreds of executions.
