The people of Iran have a right to protest, unlike terrorists brought in from abroad, Masoud Pezeshkian has said.
The US and Israel are meddling in the unrest shaking Iran, the country’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said in a televised interview on Sunday. He accused Washington and West Jerusalem of egging on “foreign terrorists” embedded among the protesters.
Deadly upheaval erupted in the sanctioned country late last month, sparked by hyperinflation and a worsening economic crisis. The government is attempting to address the public’s concerns “any way possible,” Pezeshkian told state broadcaster IRIB.
The “chaos” is being escalated by “rioters and terrorists,” rather than Iranians with legitimate grievances, he said.
“The enemy… is training terrorists inside the country and abroad, bringing terrorists into the country… They set fire to mosques, bazaars, and guilds,” Pezeshkian said, accusing them of deadly violence.
“These people do not belong to this country. If someone belongs to this country, let them protest, and we will hear their protest, listen to it, and solve it.”
Pezeshkian accused the US and Israel of riling up the protesters, and called on Iranians not to let young people get mixed in with “rioters and terrorists.”
Violent clashes between the protesters and the authorities have led to dozens of deaths among the Iranian security forces and civilian bystanders, Iran’s PressTV reported on Sunday. Multiple mosques, medical centres, and other buildings have reportedly been torched across the country.
Rioters can be seen beating and burning police officers to death in a graphic clip shared by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday.
In a security camera video published by PressTV, a Molotov cocktail can be seen being thrown into a mosque where children are playing.
Watch as rioters throw Molotov cocktails at children in a mosque in the Iranian city of Sabzevar, setting the building ablaze.
Follow Press TV on Telegram: https://t.co/h0eMpigtxM pic.twitter.com/AcxLNHW7nV
— PressTV Extra (@PresstvExtra) January 10, 2026
A nationwide internet blackout was imposed in Iran on Thursday, which was still in effect as of the time of writing.
The demonstrations were openly encouraged by a Farsi-language social media account associated with Israel’s Mossad, which claimed that it had agents embedded within the crowds.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that he is ready to intervene directly.
“The USA stands ready to help!!!” he wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.
Last summer, the US joined an Israeli attack on several of the Islamic Republic’s biggest nuclear sites after accusing it of pursuing a nuclear weapon – allegations that Tehran denied, insisting that its program is purely peaceful.
Wouldn’t surprise me in the least
These sorts of operations which bear the hallmark Mossad stamped all over them
Are the equivalent of a battleship sitting offshore pounding the target
Softening up operations
To create the conditions necessary
In preparation to an impeding surgical preemptive strike
Its obvious to me too
Yes the problem is I can see this going nuclear
The Jews got themselves in the s*** last time
Even with the US masquerading behind peace talks in taking part in a surprise attack
Which necessitated Trump launching a clumsy attack on Iranian nuclear facilities
As an off ramp to cease hostilities and defuse the situation
Which was only a cease fire
Iran’s government is evil.
They have spent decades terrorising their own citizens. No one wants to live in an Islamic theocracy hellhole. 1970’s Iran vs 2026 Iran are two very different places.
They are getting what they deserve.
Thousands of sanctions on present day Iran.
How many were there in the 70s when the US/UK/Israeli stooge was in charge?
Isn’t it funny that all the (mostly) left leaning MSM here in NZ that made fun of Trump for years, now seem to openly back and support his rhetoric by regurgitating the same ‘news’ as other captured media arouns the world.
Do we have any journalists with brains or gumption in NZ to call out the double standards. The protests have turned to rioting, arson and killing security. That would be put down in any country. But when Iran does it, the US and Israel jump up and down, followed by the other monkeys in their sphere of influence.
Looking at you RNZ, Stuff and NZ Herald
Mainstream media here are deep into war and regime change. They are propaganda tools for the international usury cartel – climate change, transgenderism, war. Their opposition to Trump was performative but they love him now because he’s joined the warmonger club.
To my mind, this has the hallmarks of the US and its evil pets hands, all over it. They are hoping to do to Iran what they did to Ukraine. Its the 21st century but somehow it feels like a repeat of the second half of the 20th starting in the 1950’s. The US has not changed, its not evolved, its not advanced. A failing empire indeed.
Yup it’s so obvious it’s the juice again….. EVERY SINGLE DAMN TIME
Debt to equity ratios in the globalist balance sheets are far too high so they need to correct it by stealing solid long term assets. Venezuelan oil and Iranian oil. The globalists could not defeat Iran militarily last year. So they infiltrate Iran from within – which is too easy because Iran has a long tradition of welcoming refugees and everybody – to the point where Iran has far more immigrants per-capita than anywhere else in the world.
If these rioters are paid professional agitators, how come, and how, do they keep coming into the country? I certainly don’t believe anything the western mainstream media say on Iran, but it seems to me that the Iranian government is incompetent and always shooting itself in the foot