Trump following Netanyahu playbook with new Iran threat: critics

US PresidentDonald Trumpon Friday issued his latest threat to attack Iran militarily, warning in asocial mediapost that theUnited Statesis “ready to go” ifTehranintensifies its crackdown on ongoing streetprotests.

“If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We are locked and loaded.”

Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, quickly hit back, writing on X that “Trump should know that American interference in this issue is equivalent to chaos in the entire region and will destroy America’s interests.”

Trump’s post came days after the president suggested, following a meeting with Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu, that he would support another round of military strikes against Iran after greenlighting the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities last year.

Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), said in response to Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu that the Israeli prime minister “came to the US with the goal of moving the goalposts for military action on Iran.”

“Trump’s comments are a dangerous signal the president may have taken the bait,” Abdi warned. “The US should not be involved in joining, supporting, or enabling another war on Iran for Israel. The president should instead be pursuing a diplomatic resolution to take war with Iran off the table for Americans, not continuing to follow Netanyahu into a quagmire.”

“President Trump likely views his own reckless comments as diplomatic posturing to pressure Iran to the table,” Abdi added. “But such rhetoric risks seriously backfiring and is more likely to remove diplomatic off-ramps, which also serves Netanyahu’s agenda — not America’s.”

“A familiar playbook is unfolding: Israeli government officials and their allies are cynically co-opting the legitimate grievances of ordinary Iranians to advance their own agenda ofmilitarismand outside-led regime change.”

The protests in Iran began last weekend in response to deteriorating economic conditions, specifically the collapse of the nation’s currency. Analyst Sina Toossinotedon his Substack,Dissident Foreign Policy,that the demonstrations, which now include students, were “sparked by a group of mobile phone andtechnologymerchants in Tehran going on strike.”

“From there, the protests spilled into surrounding streets of the capital and, over subsequent days, into other cities across the country,” Toossi wrote. “As they spread, economic grievances increasingly mixed with overt anti-government slogans, as seen in pastprotestmovements.”

Reports indicate thatseveral protestershave been killed by Iranian security forces.

NIAC’s Etan Mabourakh and Ehsan ZahedaniwroteWednesday that “as protestserupt across Iranin response to economic collapse and broken promises of reform, a familiar playbook is unfolding: Israeli government officials and their allies are cynically co-opting the legitimate grievances of ordinary Iranians to advance their own agenda of militarism and outside-led regime change.”

“The Iranian people’s struggle for dignity, economic justice, and freedom is their own,” they added. “It deserves self-awaresolidarityfrom the diaspora that asserts their self-determination—not Western ‘salvation’ in the form of more bombs on Tehran.”

This article, originally published by Common Dreams, is republished under a Creative Commons license.