US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Iranians should continue nationwide protests and take over the country’s institutions.

“Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”

Later, when asked what he meant by saying “help is on its way” to protesters in Iran, Trump told reporters that they would have to figure it out.

“You’re going to have to figure that one out. I’m sorry,” Trump said in response to a question.

On Monday, his Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that a channel for diplomacy with Tehran remained open, saying that Iran was taking a “far different tone” in private discussions with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Trump on Monday also announced a 25 per cent tariff on any country doing business with Iran.

Following the US president’s post, Iranian security chief Ali Larijani said on social media platform X that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were the “main killers” of the Iranian people.

Russia condemns ‘subversive external interference’

Meanwhile, Russia on Tuesday condemned what it described as “subversive external interference” in Iran’s internal politics and said US threats of new military strikes against the country were “categorically unacceptable”.

“Those who plan to use externally inspired unrest as a pretext for repeating the aggression against Iran committed in June 2025 must be aware of the disastrous consequences of such actions for the situation in the Middle East and global international security,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Separately, Britain, France, Germany and Italy all summoned Iranian ambassadors in protest over the crackdown.

“The brutal actions of the Iranian regime against its own people are shocking,” the German foreign ministry said on X.

Underscoring international uncertainty over what comes next in Iran, which has been one of the dominant powers across the Middle East for decades, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he believed the government would fall.

“I assume that we are now witnessing the final days and weeks of this regime,” he said, adding that if it had to maintain power through violence, “it is effectively at its end”.

He did not expand on whether this forecast was based on intelligence or other assessments.

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi dismissed Merz’s criticisms, accusing Berlin of double standards and saying he had “obliterated any shred of credibility”.