Protesters were "ruining their own streets" to please President Donald Trump, who has threatened intervention, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday.

Khamenei dismissed the mass protests, documented in dramatic eyewitness videos spreading across social media, as “a handful of vandals” who “destroyed buildings” belonging to Iran so Trump would be “pleased” and “feel good,” according to his latest remarks published by Iranian state media, originally in Farsi.

With Iran's anti-government unrest evolving rapidly and foreign pressure mounting, the clerical establishment appears unable, for now, to tackle what has become a crisis of legitimacy at the heart of the Islamic Republic.

Anti-Americanism has united Iran and Venezuela in a tight alliance for more than two decades. As recently as 2022, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei welcomed Maduro to Tehran, praising the Venezuelan strongman’s “resistance” against America and his “anti-Zionist positions,

Iran facing "nationwide internet blackout," monitoring group says, amid hope that 12 days of deadly protests may swell into a tipping point against a repressive regime.

Demonstrations broke out in Iran on Dec. 28 and have spread nationwide as protesters vent their increasing discontent over the Islamic Republic’s faltering economy and the collapse of its currency.

Iran's authorities must show maximum restraint towards protesters who have a legitimate right to demonstrate, a French diplomatic source said on Friday.

Iran's exiled crown prince wants Iranians to seize the momentum of mass protests, and one analyst believes it could prove a tipping point.