As antigovernment protests have gathered momentum across Iran, the US president has repeatedly threatened Tehran with military action if his administration found the Islamic Republic was using deadly force quash the unrest. It’s a red line that Trump has said he believes Iran is “starting to cross” and has left him and his national security team weighing “very strong options”.
Protesters block a road in Tehran.Credit: Getty Images
But the US military – which Trump has warned Tehran is “locked and loaded” – appears, at least for the moment, to have been placed on standby mode as Trump ponders his next steps, saying that Iranian officials want to have talks with the White House.
“What you’re hearing publicly from the Iranian regime is quite different from the messages the administration is receiving privately, and I think the president has an interest in exploring those messages,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday (Tuesday AEDT).
“However, with that said, the president has shown he’s unafraid to use military options if and when he deems necessary, and nobody knows that better than Iran.”
Hours later, Trump announced on social media that he would slap 25 per cent tariffs on countries doing business with Tehran “effective immediately”.
China, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Brazil and Russia are among economies that do business with Tehran.
The White House has offered scant details on Iran’s outreach for talks, but Leavitt confirmed that the president’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will be a key player engaging Tehran.
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and key White House National Security Council officials began meeting on Friday to develop a “suite of options” from a diplomatic approach to military strikes, to present to Trump in the coming days, according to a US official familiar with the internal administration deliberations. The official was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Footage circulating on social media shows protesters dancing and cheering around a bonfire as they take to the streets despite the intensifying crackdown in Tehran.Credit: AP
Can the protests be sustained?
Demonstrations continue, but analysts say it remains unclear just how long protesters will remain on the street.
Iran drew tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators to the streets on Monday in a show of power after nationwide protests challenging the country’s theocracy. Iranian state television showed images of demonstrators thronging Tehran toward Enghelab Square in the capital.
An internet blackout imposed by Tehran makes it hard for protesters to understand just how widespread the demonstrations have become, Vali Nasr, a former State Department adviser and now professor of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University, said.
“It makes it very difficult for news from one city or pictures from one city to incense or motivate action in another city,” Nasr said.
“The protests are leaderless, they’re organisationless. They are actually genuine eruptions of popular anger. And without leadership and direction and organisation, such protests, not just in Iran, everywhere in the world – it’s very difficult for them to sustain themselves.”
The demonstrations are the biggest Iran has seen in years – protests spurred by the collapse of Iranian currency that have morphed into a larger test of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s repressive rule.
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