Trump vows 'very strong action' if Iran executes protesters
BBC News1 day
Trump Says 'Killing in Iran Is Stopping' After US Threatens 'Strong Action'
Is Iran brutally executing peaceful protesters, or are Western powers backing violent insurrectionists for regime change?
Above:Â Burning debris lies next to an overturned dumpster in the middle of a street during unrest amid demonstrations in Hamedan, Iran, on Jan. 1Â Image credit:Â Mobina/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images
The Spin
Anti-Iran narrative
Iran's desperate regime is now resorting to executing protesters after sham trials, stripping citizens of basic legal rights for the crime of dissent. These executions draw the red line — the moment Washington needs to move from outrage to U.S. military intervention as a last resort, cast as unavoidable. Thousands have been killed or detained under shoot-to-kill orders and internet blackouts meant to bury the violence. The bloodshed is an unforgivable crime against humanity, deliberately echoing the regime’s mass killings of the 1980s to legitimize escalation.
Pro-Iran narrative
The U.S. is manufacturing a pretext for military intervention and regime change by ignoring rioters' shocking violence — including public lynchings, mosque burnings, and gunmen opening fire — while relying on regime-change networks to inflate death tolls. Western media's one-sided portrayal deliberately obscures that these are not peaceful protesters but violent insurrectionists backed by Mossad and U.S. intelligence. Trump and Netanyahu are the real killers of Iranians, having slaughtered over a thousand civilians during their 12-day military aggression in June 2025.
Establishment-critical narrative
Iran's crackdown is brutal, and sham trials followed by executions deliver the images that everyone, especially the White House, has been waiting for. Death turns into leverage, outrage into policy momentum. The same powers in Washington that flattened cities elsewhere now speak the language of restraint, until escalation suits their interests. The Trump administration can now control the narrative — all of this just shows how efficiently violence can be translated into an excuse to attack.