TEHRAN – Iran’s supreme leader on Sunday likened recent anti-government protests to a “coup”, warning that any US attack on the Islamic republic following Washington’s military deployments in the Middle East would trigger a regional war.

The Iranian authorities’ deadly response to the protests sparked threats of intervention from US President Donald Trump, who dispatched an aircraft carrier group to the region.

“The Americans should know that if they start a war, this time it will be a regional war,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, telling Iranians they “should not be scared” of Trump’s rhetoric.

The demonstrations in Iran began as an expression of discontent at the high cost of living, but grew into a mass anti-government movement that the country’s leaders have described as “riots” fomented by the United States and Israel. “They (rioters) attacked the police, government centres, IRGC centres, banks, and mosques, and burned the Koran… It was like a coup,” Khamenei said, adding that “the coup was suppressed”.

Tehran has acknowledged more than 3 000 deaths during the protests, but insists that most were members of the security forces and innocent bystanders, attributing the violence to “terrorist acts”.

Rights groups and foreign governments, however, have accused Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of carrying out a crackdown that killed thousands of protesters.

The response prompted the European Union to list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, with Iranian lawmakers retaliating on Sunday by slapping the same designation on European armies.

Lawmakers wore the green uniform of the Guards in a display of solidarity at the legislative session, where they chanted “Death to America”, “Death to Israel” and “Shame on you, Europe”, state television footage showed.

Slamming the bloc’s “irresponsible action”, speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that under “Article 7 of the Law on Countermeasures Against the Declaration of the IRGC as a Terrorist Organisation, the armies of European countries are considered terrorist groups”.

It remained unclear what immediate impact the decision would have.

The law was first passed in 2019, when the United States classified the Guards as a terrorist organisation. – Nampa/AFP