After US President Donald Trump warned Iran on Friday of intervention if authorities in the Middle Eastern country “violently kill” peaceful protesters, a top official of the Islamic Republic said any interference by Washington would mean “destabilising the entire region and destroying America’s interests”.

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

Reacting to his statement, Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, posted on X: “With the statements by Israeli officials and Donald Trump, what has been going on behind the scenes is now clear.

“We distinguish between the stance of the protesting shopkeepers and the actions of disruptive actors, and Trump should know that US interference in this internal matter would mean destabilising the entire region and destroying America’s interests.”

He added, “The American people should know — Trump started this adventurism. They should be mindful of their soldiers’ safety.”

These statements follow the deaths of several people as Iran’s biggest protests in three years over economic hardship turned violent across multiple provinces.

The clashes between protesters and security forces mark a significant escalation in the unrest that has spread across the country since shopkeepers began protesting on Sunday over the government’s handling of a sharp currency slide and rapidly rising prices.

Iran’s economy has struggled for years since the US reimposed sanctions in 2018, after Trump withdrew from an international nuclear agreement during his first term.