Trump
promises ‘help is on its way’ and tells Iranians to ‘keep protesting’
US
president gives clearest signal yet that he might take military action against
Tehran over killing of demonstrators
Patrick
Wintour Diplomatic editor and Andrew Roth Global affairs correspondent
Tue 13
Jan 2026 18.11 GMT
Donald
Trump has told Iranians to keep protesting and said help was on the way, in the
clearest sign yet that the US president may be preparing for military action
against Tehran.
“Iranian
Patriots, keep protesting – take over your institutions!!! … help is on its
way,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, a day after the White
House press secretary said airstrikes were among “many, many options” the US
president was considering.
Trump
added that he had cancelled all meetings with Iranian officials until the
“senseless killing” of protesters stopped.
His
remarks suggest Iran’s offer to reopen talks on its nuclear programme has been
rejected by Trump in the face of increasingly credible reports that as many as
2,000 Iranians had been killed in the protests. Iranian officials had earlier
admitted to 600 deaths.
His call
to keep protesting comes a day after demonstrations had apparently subsided
owing to the severity of the crackdown. Trump is still conferring with
officials about the action he could take. But his words imply he will not be
content with further economic pressure.
On
Tuesday evening, the state department warned US citizens to leave Iran
immediately and Trump said that there would be “very strong action” if the
regime hangs protesters. He did not elaborate on what that would mean.
The
current assessment of European diplomats is that the regime is very determined
to cling on to power, and has the internal unity and resolve to do so. They
believe it would take a very sustained US bombing campaign for that alignment
of forces to change.
Trump’s
new declaration of support may bolster the demonstrations, but it remains
unclear if a show of force by the US can compel the Iranian regime to back
down. The death toll from the crackdown on the protests has risen as images of
Iranian morgues filled with the bodies of demonstrators have leaked online.
In his
posts, Trump also called on Iranian protesters to “save the names of the
killers and abusers” suggesting that the US could bring them to account and
that they would “pay a big price”.
Trump has
also vowed to target foreign backers of the Iranian government and has
announced a 25% tariff on any country still trading with Iran, a move that led
China, Iran’s largest export partner, to threaten retaliation. The US president
said the new tariffs would be “effective immediately”, without providing
further details.
In March
last year, Trump proposed a similar measure of imposing tariffs on countries
trading with Venezuela, but it was left to the US secretary of state, Marco
Rubio, to complete the details and was never implemented.
“Effective
immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will
pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States
of America,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday. Tariffs are paid by
US importers of goods from those countries.
Liu
Pengyu, the spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said Beijing
would “take all necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and
interests” after Trump threatened to ramp up his global trade war. Other major
trading partners include Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
A Russian
foreign ministry spokesperson characterised US pressure on Iran by saying that
“external forces hostile to Iran are trying to use the growing public tension
to destabilise and destroy the Iranian state”.
The UK
and other European countries including France, Germany and Italy summoned their
Iranian ambassadors on Tuesday as they condemned the crackdown, but seemed to
be seeking a way to avoid a US military intervention. The UK foreign secretary,
Yvette Cooper, called on the Iranian ambassadors to “answer for the horrific
reports” of violence from the country.
The US
senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, said: “The tipping point of this long
journey will be President Trump’s resolve. No boots on the ground, but
unleashing holy hell – as he promised – on the regime that has trampled every
red line. A massive wave of military, cyber and psychological attacks is the
meat and bones of ‘help is on the way’.”
More than
140 countries still trade with Iran, according to the World Bank, but sometimes
only in small amounts.
Trump’s
threats of tariffs on Iranian trading partners coincided with Iran easing some
restrictions on its people and, for the first time in days, allowing them to
make calls abroad via their mobile phones on Tuesday. It did not ease
restrictions on the internet or permit texting services to be restored.
Reporting
restrictions and the online shutdown make it difficult to determine the death
toll. The Associated Press, however, reported that the news agency of Human
Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has been accurate in its coverage of
previous unrest, had given a toll of at least 2,000 people, of whom 135 were
government-affiliated.
Yvette
Cooper has announced sectoral sanctions on Iran covering finance, energy
transport and software. She condemned the “horrendous and brutal killing” of
peaceful protesters, saying Britain had summoned the Iranian ambassador to
underline the gravity of the situation.
She
described the Iranian narrative that the killings were the responsibility of
foreign interference as lies, adding that Britain would not do anything to play
into the regime’s efforts to whip up opposition to the west.
The
demonstrations in Iran have evolved from complaints about dire economic
hardships to defiant calls for the fall of the deeply entrenched clerical
establishment. The authorities have responded with a harsh crackdown including
mass arrests, internet blackouts and public warnings that participation in the
demonstrations could carry the death penalty.
The White
House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters this week that
airstrikes were among the “many, many options” that Trump was considering but
that “diplomacy is always the first option for the president”. More targeted
assassinations and hitting Iran’s police headquarters with cruise missiles
could also be considered.
There is
no public sign yet that Iran sees its internal crisis as so existential that it
needs to change its nuclear programme to meet US demands – and gain relief from
already crippling sanctions. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has been
at the forefront of ministers claiming the protests were hijacked by foreign
terrorist groups.
The
German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said on Tuesday: “I assume that we are now
witnessing the final days and weeks of this regime. When a regime can only
maintain power through violence, then it is effectively at its end. The
population is now rising up against this regime.”
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