• Trump to be “overthrown” like Iran’s imperial dynasty in 1979: Khamenei.
• Rights groups accuse authorities of opening fire on protesters.
• Pahlavi says rallies show how “massive crowd forces LEAs to retreat”.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday insisted that the government would “not back down” in the face of protests after the biggest rallies yet in an almost two-week movement sparked by anger over the rising cost of living.

Chanting slogans including “death to the dictator” and setting fire to official buildings, crowds of people opposed to the establishment marched through major cities late on Thursday.

Internet monitor Netblocks said authorities had imposed a total connectivity blackout late on Thursday and added early on Friday that the country has “now been offline for 12 hours […] in an attempt to suppress sweeping protests”.

The demonstrations represent one of the biggest challenges yet to the nation in its over four-and-a-half decades of existence, with protesters openly calling for an end to its theocratic rule.

But Khamenei struck a defiant tone in his first comments on the protests that have been escalating since January 3, calling the demonstrators “vandals” and “saboteurs”, in a speech broadcast on state TV.

Khamenei said US President Donald Trump’s hands “are stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians”, in apparent reference to Israel’s June war against the Islamic republic which the US supported and joined with strikes of its own.

He predicted the “arrogant” US leader would be “overthrown” like the imperial dynasty that ruled Iran up to the 1979 revolution.

“Last night in Tehran, a bunch of vandals came and destroyed a building that belongs to them to please the US president,” he said in an address to supporters, as men and women in the audience chanted the mantra of “death to America”.

“Everyone knows the Islamic republic came to power with the blood of hundreds of thousands of honourable people, it will not back down in the face of saboteurs,” he added.

Trump said late on Thursday that “enthusiasm to overturn that regime is incredible” and warned that if the Iranian authorities responded by killing protesters, “we’re going to hit them very hard. We’re ready to do it.”

Even larger

AFP has verified videos showing crowds of people, as well as vehicles honking in support, filling a part of the vast Ayatollah Kashani Boulevard late on Thursday.

The crowd could be heard chanting “death to the dictator” in reference to Khamenei, 86, who has ruled the republic since 1989.

Other videos showed significant protests in other cities, including Tabriz in the north and the holy city of Mashhad in the east, as well as the Kurdish-populated west of the country, including the regional hub Kermanshah.

Several videos showed protesters setting fire to the entrance to the regional branch of state television in the central city of Isfahan. It was not immediately possible to verify the images.

Flames were also seen in the governor’s building in Shazand, the capital of Markazi province in central Iran, after protesters gathered outside, other videos showed.

The protests late on Thursday were the biggest in Iran since 2022-2023 rallies nationwide sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic republic’s strict dress code.

Rights groups have accused authorities of firing on protesters in the current demonstrations, killing dozens. However, the latest videos from Tehran did not show intervention by security forces.

The son of the shah of Iran ousted by the 1979 Islamic Revolution, US-based Reza Pahlavi, who had called for major protests on Thursday, urged a new show of force in the streets on Friday.

Pahlavi, in a new video message early on Friday, said Thursday’s rallies showed how “a massive crowd forces the repressive forces to retreat”.

He called for bigger protests on Friday “to make the crowd even larger so that the regime’s repressive power becomes even weaker”.

MOSCOW: Russia on Friday said the United States had decided to release two Russian members of the crew of a Russian-flagged oil tanker that Washington seized earlier this week.

The American authorities said the tanker was part of a shadow fleet that carried oil for countries such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran in violation of US sanctions, and seized it in the North Atlantic despite the ship being escorted by the Russian navy.

“In response to our request, US President Donald Trump has decided to release two Russian citizens aboard the Marinera tanker, previously detained by the United States during an operation in the North Atlantic,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

“We welcome this decision and express our gratitude to the US leadership,” she added.

Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev said on Telegram that Trump decided to release “all Russians” on board the Marinera tanker.

The United States said previously the Marinera’s crew could be prosecuted — which Russia said was “categorically unacceptable.”

Moscow on Thursday accused Washington of stoking tensions and threatening international shipping with the seizure of the tanker, which it has cast as illegal.

Russia’s foreign ministry said the move will “only result in further military and political tensions”, adding that it was worried by “Washington’s willingness to generate acute international crisis situations.”

• Trump warns tariffs will rise unless Russian oil imports are curbed.
• Indian rupee hits record low on US tariff pressure.
• India seeks mid-range tariff rate; Lutnick says offer has expired.

NEW DELHI: India’s trade pact with the United States was delayed because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not make a telephone call to President Donald Trump to close a deal they were negotiating, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Friday.

The trade talks fell apart last year and Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods in August to 50%, the world’s highest rate, including a levy of 25% in retaliation for India’s purchases of Russian oil.

“It’s all set up and you have got to have Modi call the President. And they were uncomfortable doing it,” Lutnick said in an interview on the All-In podcast, a US show by four venture capitalists that focuses on business and technology.

“So Modi didn’t call.”

The comments came after Trump stepped up the pressure for talks with a warning this week that tariffs could rise further unless India curbs its Russian oil imports.

That step pushed the Indian rupee to a record low and spooked investors waiting for progress in two-way negotiations for a trade deal that remains elusive.

India still seeks a tariff rate between Washington’s offers to Britain and Vietnam that had formerly been agreed but the offer has expired, Lutnick added.

India’s trade ministry did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment on Lutnick’s remarks.

New Delhi and Washington were very close to a trade deal last year but a communication breakdown led to the collapse of any potential pact, Reuters reported.

It cited an Indian government official involved in the talks as saying that Modi could not have called Trump, for fear that a one-sided conversation would put him on the spot.