Trump warns Iran against killing peaceful protesters | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast on. YouTube, where we go behind the. headlines to find out more about a story. and why it matters. Protests are. continuing in Iran for a sixth day. sparked by worsening economic. conditions. Now, President Trump has. warned Iran against killing peaceful. protesters, saying the United States. will come to their rescue. In a social. media post, he said the US was locked. and loaded and ready to go. We're joined. by our Middle East correspondent, Sebastian Asher. Sebastian, what's the.

background to this? I mean, essentially. 1979, the Iranian revolution is the. watershed moment. Before that, Basha had. been in power for a couple of decades. uh the US had essentially ensured that. he stayed in power and the relations. between the US and the shar in those. days were mutually beneficial as far as. they were concerned economically, politically etc. So I mean it was the. withdrawal in a sense of international. support for Vashar when the protests.

were growing in uh in 1979 that meant. that uh his downfall was inevitable. But. as soon as uh the Islamic leadership in. Iran took over in the Iranian. revolution, the ties between the US and. Iran essentially just went through the. floor. And the biggest um event that. really uh made that something that.

really wasn't going to change was the. taking of hostages from the embassy. 55. US hostages were held for 444 days. Essentially, it destroyed the Jimmy. Carter presidency. Ronald Reagan came in. as president and uh finally they were. threed. But really, relations between uh. the US and Iran had reached rock bottom. with that. The US backed Iraq in that. appalling attritional war between Iran.

and Iraq which went on for years and. years. There have been moments, brief. moments really when it's looked like. relations have improved to some extent. Um there were efforts uh towards the end. of the '9s and the 2000s. most recently. uh in 2015 when the uh agreement was. signed with the US and other western. powers to try and curb Iran's um nuclear. program which the US believes and you.

know other countries to a greater or. lesser extent believe is geared towards. at some point creating a nuclear bomb a. nuclear weapon. Um the aim of that was. meant to be that the sanctions that had. been in place on Iran for so long that. had caused so much damage to its. economy, not the only reason but but but. a key reason would be lifted. That. didn't happen. Um and when President. Trump uh came into power, he essentially. unilaterally pulled out of that. Just.

add to that very briefly the way in. which Iran has managed to spread its. influence across the region through. proxies. most I mean the uh most. famously through Hezbollah. Uh again if. you go back to the early years after the. Iranian revolution the bombing of the. barracks in Beirut where the Marines. were stationed and the carnage that that. created again was you know a huge moment. uh where the US saw Iran essentially as.

its enemy in the region. of the US. closeness to Israel uh means that it. sees it very much in the in in. relationship to threats to Israel. Uh. the Israeli prime minister Benjamin. Netanyahu throughout his career has. always sold Iran as being the absolute. existential threat in the region. Uh. that has been bought uh by many US. presidents as being most you know as. being essentially uh factual.

Uh so we've seen really no end to this. hostility between the two sides and it. it it's continuing now. >> Yeah. And we've nearly reached a tipping. point on a number of occasions in more. recent weeks and months. >> Yes. I mean we had the 12-day war back. in the summer in July. Israel, which had. been building up to this for years and. years, again under Benjamin Netanyahu, uh finally uh took action to try and.

eliminate the ability for Iran, it. denies this, but for Iran to develop uh. nuclear weapons and President Trump. stepped in with um desperately needed. support essentially for Israel to do. that. So there had been so much talk for. so many years that if Israel ever did. that, it would mean utter I mean not. that the Middle East obviously is any. kind of a peaceful state, but but it.

would be something which would tip it. over an edge in which the possible. ramifications would be incalculable. Well, President Trump went along with it. and at least for now that's not what's. happened. What we've seen is the Iranian. regime weakened on many fronts. Um we've. seen its proxies took a very very big. hit from Israel uh when it launched its. attack on uh its leadership on its. members uh a year a year and a bit ago.

now. Um we've seen that to some extent. with the Houthis in Yemen. Um we've seen. it with militias in Iraq that are allied. to Iran. Again and again, the power that. Iran has been able to exert across the. region without committing itself 100%. has been weakened. Add to that the absolute dire straits. that the Iranian economy has been in for. years, which has got worse this year.

>> Uh and you mentioned those economic. pressures, they have been the spark for. the latest round of protests. Yes, I. mean the the these protests certainly I. mean uh 2025. saw the Iranian currency fall by 50%. against the US dollar. I mean it's. fallen precipitously again and again but. I mean that is uh unprecedented to that. extent. Inflation. the most conservative estimates is it's. running at over 40% some say at 50%. So. these pressures adding to the pressures.

from the economy that there've been for. years which have brought people out onto. the streets. I mean back in 2022 the. last absolutely huge protests. Uh they. weren't originally motivated so much by. the economy. They were motivated by. issues of freedom, women's rights. Uh. remember they were named after Masarini, the young Iranian Kurdish woman who died. in the custody of the police uh having. been taken in because of way she was. wearing her hijab. But they morphed as. well into economic protests too. And.

again, you saw the way that um the. divisions within Iranian society were. exposed by that as well, which both add. to the intensity of a protest, but also. weaken them in some ways because those. different communities don't really pull. together. What we're seeing in the past. few days was uh has been uh originally. very much a protest from shopkeepers in. the bazaars in Thran. These you could. say are the sub middle class um people.

who have managed to navigate their way. mostly through these very choppy waters. of the economy but essentially saying. enough is enough. I mean the real is. changing day by day. We can't run our. businesses like this anymore. has to. stop. That then moved as it did in. previous uh uh protests to the. universities to other cities beyond. Thran. And what we've seen in the past. couple of days have been in uh towns and. villages in the west and the south um it.

it's very difficult to tell at the. moment how much momentum the protest. will have. But although the Iranian uh. regime has talked to some extent, it. it's tried to make a distinction between. those who come out on the streets about. the economy and who they see as they can. they can have some negotiation with. perhaps about that and those who they. see as wanting just to bring down the. regime. In which case, if that continues. and builds, we will see the same.

repressive measures that have been used. to to to to destroy protests previously. >> Although potentially a key difference. this time, the fact that President Trump. has said that he will come to the rescue. of protesters. >> Yes. I mean, that's an extraordinary. intervention. We're used to. extraordinary interventions from. President Trump. I mean, you might. dismiss it to some extent as rhetoric, but you can't in the light of, as we. were talking earlier of the the the. 12-day war uh between Israel and Iran.

early this year when President Trump. did, you know, give the green light for. the US to take military action that was. always seen as again, as I say, crossing. a red line. Um I think the calculation. by the US uh is that Iran is so weakened. that though it will talk and it has. already I mean a senior adviser to uh. the supreme leaders already talking. about this is a red line. I think the. sense is though what can they do about.

it? I mean, they've been shown uh the. authorities unable to use their much. heralded forces in the region to really. make much uh uh um of an impact either. on US forces or when they were attacking. Israel. So, you know, a sense that uh. they are at bay and that uh some action. direct action could be taken. I mean, what's interesting about this is how. useful it is for the protesters.

themselves. I mean, for many of them on. the streets, I don't think they would. want particularly to be seen as. fulfilling the narrative that the. Iranian regime puts forward, which is. that these are sponsored from outside. When you have President Trump saying. something like that, it gives some. credibility to that. So, from their. point of view, it may not be seen as as. as particularly uh uh uh useful for what. they want to do. um particularly positive and and also. you know when a country comes under. attack as Iran did by Israel so strongly.

during those 12 days it pulls together. to some extent um I think what we're. seeing is the diaspora outside Iran very. much applauding what President Trump has. said but they are people many of them. who. I don't think have that close a. connection with the protests that are. really going on they're imagining. something that is different from what it. really is. They're already talking about. this is the fall of a regime. It's.

inevitable. It's going to go down. They. said that before and it hasn't happened. And I think those sorts of voices are. the ones that President Trump, the. people around him maybe listen to too. much and what they say doesn't. necessarily fit with what's actually. going on on the ground. >> Thanks, Seb. Sebastian Usher, our Middle. East correspondent. If you found this. episode interesting, do please subscribe. to us here on YouTube. You can also find. out more about this story and many.

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