An Anti-Iranian regime protester burns a photo of Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran, during a gathering outside the U.S. Consulate in Milan, on Jan. 13, 2026 (Credit: Piero Cruciatti/AFP)
U.S. President Donald Trump warned of unspecified "very strong action" if Iranian authorities go ahead with threatened hangings of some protesters, with Tehran calling American warnings a "pretext for military intervention."
International outrage has built over the crackdown that a rights group said has likely killed thousands during protests, posing one of the biggest challenges yet to Iran's clerical leadership.
Iran's U.N. mission posted a statement on X, vowing that Washington's "playbook" would "fail again."
"U.S. fantasies and policy toward Iran are rooted in regime change, with sanctions, threats, engineered unrest, and chaos serving as the modus operandi to manufacture a pretext for military intervention," the post said.
Iranian authorities have insisted they had regained control of the country after successive nights of mass protests nationwide.
Rights groups accuse the government of fatally shooting protesters and masking the scale of the crackdown with an internet blackout that has now surpassed the five-day mark.
New videos on social media, with locations verified by AFP, showed bodies lined up in the Kahrizak morgue just south of the Iranian capital, with the corpses wrapped in black bags and distraught relatives searching for loved ones.
Trump, who earlier told the protesters in Iran that "help is on its way," said Tuesday in a CBS News interview that the United States would act if Iran began hanging protesters.
Tehran prosecutors have said Iranian authorities would press capital charges of "moharebeh," or "waging war against God," against some suspects arrested over recent demonstrations.
"We will take very strong action if they do such a thing," said the American leader, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military intervention.
"When they start killing thousands of people, and now you're telling me about hanging. We'll see how that's going to work out for them," Trump said.
The U.S. State Department on its Farsi language X account said 26-year-old protestor Erfan Soltani had been sentenced to be executed on Wednesday.
"Erfan is the first protester to be sentenced to death, but he won't be the last," the State Department said, adding more than 10,600 Iranians had been arrested.
Rights group Amnesty International called on Iran to immediately halt all executions, including Soltani's.
Trump urged on his Truth Social platform for Iranians to "KEEP PROTESTING," adding: "I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY."
It was not immediately clear what meetings he was referring to or what the nature of the help would be.
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