Masoud Pezeshkian says international powers ‘took benefit’ of the nation’s issues and ‘provoked’ society.
Revealed On 31 Jan 2026
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has stated that United States President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Europe stirred tensions by “frightening” folks in the course of the latest protests that gripped the nation.
“They geared up and introduced numerous harmless folks together with this motion and poured them into the streets and incited them to tear this nation aside, create fights and hatred between folks, and create division,” Pezeshkian stated in a televised speech on Saturday, in response to Iran’s official Scholar Information Community.
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“In any regular protest, they don’t choose up weapons, they don’t kill army personnel, they don’t set fireplace to ambulances and markets, and we must always sit with the protesters, hearken to their phrases and considerations, and resolve them; we’re able to hear,” he added.
“Everybody is aware of that the problem was not only a social protest,” Pezeshkian stated, claiming that the international powers “took benefit of our issues”, “provoked us” and “sought to divide our society”.
Iranian authorities acknowledge that hundreds had been killed in the course of the latest protests, giving a toll of greater than 3,000 deaths, however say the bulk had been members of the safety forces or bystanders killed by “rioters”.
However rights teams warn the toll is probably going far increased, with estimates within the tens of hundreds.
For a number of weeks, Trump has been threatening to launch a army strike on Iran over its lethal protest crackdown earlier this month – protests Tehran repeatedly claimed had been incited by international powers.
A US naval strike group has been in Center Japanese waters since Monday, and Trump warned it was “prepared, keen and in a position” to hit Iran “if needed”.
Iranian International Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday the nation is prepared for “truthful and equitable” talks with the US, including: “Iran has no downside with negotiations, however negotiations can not happen underneath the shadow of threats.
“I also needs to state unequivocally that Iran’s defensive and missile capabilities – and Iran’s missiles – won’t ever be the topic of any negotiations,” Araghchi stated throughout a information convention alongside his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan.
Individually on Friday, the US introduced sanctions in opposition to Iran’s inside minister and different officers, over the incidents that happened in the course of the protests.
Inside Minister Eskandar Momeni “oversees the murderous Regulation Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF), a key entity accountable for the deaths of hundreds of peaceable protesters”, the US Division of the Treasury stated in an announcement concerning the measures.
These sanctioned additionally included a number of high-ranking officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in addition to Iranian investor Babak Morteza Zanjani, who stands accused of getting “embezzled billions in funds from the Iranian folks”.
In a primary, the Treasury Division additionally introduced sanctions in opposition to digital forex exchanges linked to Zanjani “which have processed giant volumes of funds related to IRGC-linked counterparties”.
