US warns Iran over response to widespread protests: ‘The world is watching’

“Reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with the regime’s corruption and its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad,” the White House said. “The Iranian government should respect their people’s rights including their right to express themselves. The world is watching.”

An earlier statement took explicit aim at the Iranian government, and appeared to suggest that the protestors were justified. “Iran’s leaders have turned a wealthy country with a rich history and culture into an economically depleted rogue state, whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos,” it read.

Donald Trump repeated some of the wording of both of those statements in a tweet.

Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime’s corruption & its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad. Iranian govt should respect their people’s rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching! #IranProtests

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2017

The State Department called the protests peaceful and said that protestors should not be arrested. It is not clear how many activists have been arrested so far.

“Iran’s leaders have turned a wealthy country with a rich history and culture into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos,” it said in a statement. “As President Trump has said, the longest-suffering victims of Iran’s leaders are Iran’s own people.

“The United States strongly condemns the arrest of peaceful protesters. We urge all nations to publicly support the Iranian people and their demands for basic rights and an end to corruption.”

Protests in Iran are expected to continue into their third and fourth days over the weekend. Recent reports suggested that they had spread into the country’s capital, Tehran.