Unrest in Iran has killed more than 500 people, a rights group said on Sunday, as Tehran threatened to target U.S. military bases if President Donald Trump carries out his renewed threats to intervene on behalf of protesters.
With the Islamic Republic’s clerical establishment facing the biggest demonstrations since 2022, Trump has repeatedly threatened to get involved if force is used on protesters.
Three Israeli sources, who were present for Israeli security consultations over the weekend, said Israel was on a high-alert footing for the possibility of any U.S. intervention.
Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war in June 2025, which the United States briefly joined by attacking nuclear installations. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at Israel and an American air base in Qatar.
‘RIOTERS AND TERRORISTS’
While Iranian authorities have weathered previous protests, the latest have unfolded with Tehran still recovering from last year’s war and with its regional position weakened by blows to allies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks against Israel.
Iran’s unrest comes as Trump flexes U.S. muscles internationally, having ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and discussing acquiring Greenland by purchase or force.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Israel and the U.S. was masterminding destabilisation and that Iran’s enemies had brought in “terrorists … who set mosques on fire … attack banks, and public properties”.
“Families, I ask you: do not allow your young children to join rioters and terrorists who behead people and kill others,” he said in a TV interview, adding that the government was ready to listen to the people and to resolve economic problems.
Iran summoned Britain’s ambassador on Sunday to the foreign ministry over “interventionist comments” attributed to the British foreign minister and a protester removing the Iranian flag from the London Embassy building and replacing it with a style of flag used prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Britain’s foreign office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Alan Eyre, a former U.S. diplomat and Iran expert, thought it unlikely the protests would topple the establishment.
“I think it more likely that it puts these protests down eventually, but emerges from the process far weaker,” he told Reuters, noting that Iran’s elite still appeared cohesive and there was no organised opposition.
Iranian state TV broadcast funeral processions in western cities such as Gachsaran and Yasuj for security personnel killed in protests.
State TV said 30 members of the security forces would be buried in the central city of Isfahan and that six more were killed by “rioters” in Kermanshah in the west.
