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Iran insists on country’s control as Trump says 'help on its way'

AFP
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Iran insists on country’s control as Trump says 'help on its way'

This video grab taken on January 13, 2026, from UGC images posted on social media on January 10, 2026 shows clashes in Mashhad, in northeastern Iran. (AFP)

Paris: US President Donald Trump urged Iranians on Tuesday to keep protesting against the country's theocratic leadership, telling them "help is on its way," whereas Iranian authorities insisted they had regained control of the country.

 

As international outrage grows over a crackdown, protests nationwide since Thursday have posed one of the biggest challenges to the clerical leadership since it came to power in the 1979 revolution.

 

International phone links were restored on Tuesday, but only for outgoing calls, according to an AFP journalist, and the quality remained spotty, with frequent interruptions.

 

Trump, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military intervention, said Iranians should continue their nationwide protests, take over institutions, and record the names of "killers and abusers."

 

"Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "I have canceled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY."

 

It was not immediately clear what meetings he was referring to or what the nature of the help would be.

 

European nations also signaled their anger, with France, Germany, and the United Kingdom among the countries that summoned their Iranian ambassadors to protest what French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called "state violence unquestioningly unleashed on peaceful protesters."

 

The European Union also summoned Iran's ambassador in Brussels.

 

'Last days'

The government on Monday sought to regain control of the streets with mass nationwide rallies that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed as proof that the protest movement was defeated, calling them a "warning" to the United States.

 

In power since 1989 and now aged 86, Khamenei has faced significant challenges, most recently the 12-day war in June against Israel, which resulted in the killing of top security officials and forced him to go into hiding.

 

"When a regime can only hold on to power through violence, then it is effectively finished," said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a trip to India. "I believe that we are now witnessing the last days and weeks of this regime."

 

Analysts, however, have cautioned that it is premature to predict the immediate demise of the theocratic system, pointing to the repressive levers the leadership controls, including the Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is charged with safeguarding the Islamic revolution.

 

"These protests arguably represent the most serious challenge to the Islamic republic in years, both in scale and in their increasingly explicit political demands," Nicole Grajewski, professor at the Sciences Po Centre for International Studies in Paris, told AFP.

 

She said it was unclear if the protests would unseat the leadership, pointing to "the sheer depth and resilience of Iran's repressive apparatus."