The White House on Tuesday called for Iran's leadership to respect its citizens' right to demonstrate after a sixth day of protests that brought riot police out in force in several cities. The death toll in the anti-government demonstrations has now climbed to 21.
"The United States supports the Iranian people and calls on the regime to respect its citizens' basic rights to peacefully express their desire for change," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.
Borrowing from a response playbook it has used before, Iran's government blamed the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Britain for the protests. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 78-year-old supreme leader, said Iran's enemies were using money, weapons, politics and spies "to create problems for the Islamic system, the Islamic Republic and the Islamic Revolution."
On the sixth day of protests, riot police were out in force in several cities, footage on social media showed, as security forces struggled to contain the boldest challenge to Iran's clerical leadership since unrest in 2009.
U.S. President Donald Trump also voiced his support for protesters in a series of tweets.
"The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets," said Trump, who has been tweeting daily in support of the protesters.
One U.S. official assessed that Trump's tweets were playing into the government's hands and allowing it to accuse enemies of the Islamic Republic of fomenting the unrest.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley praised the courage of Iranian demonstrators and said protests across the country were spontaneous, not driven by outside forces.
After she read out social media posts written by Iranians in support of the protests, Haley dismissed Iranian leaders' contention that the protests were designed by Iran's enemies.
"We all know that's complete nonsense," she said. "The demonstrations are completely spontaneous. They are virtually in every city in Iran. This is the precise picture of a long oppressed people's rising up against their dictators."
Haley said the United States was seeking emergency sessions on Iran at the United Nations in New York and at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
"We must not be silent," she said. "The people of Iran are crying out for freedom."
Iranian authorities have sought to suppress the protests in part by shutting down key social media sites protesters use to communicate, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and the messaging app Telegram.
On Tuesday, Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein urged Iran's government to unblock the sites. "They are legitimate avenues for communication," Goldstein said.
He said the U.S. has an "obligation not to stand by."
Iranians seeking to evade the blocks can use virtual private networks, Goldstein said. Known as VPNs, the services create encrypted data "tunnels" between computers and can be used to access overseas websites blocked by the local government.
The primary U.S. goal is to ensure enough global attention to deter Iranian authorities from violently cracking down on protesters with impunity, said a senior State Department official involved in Iran policy. The official wasn't authorized to comment by name and demanded anonymity.
For Trump, the protests have served as an unexpected but welcome opportunity to rally the world against Iran, and U.S. officials said the administration was actively encouraging other countries to back the protests. Early U.S. attempts to get European allies to coordinate their messaging with the U.S. has run into obstacles, but several countries including France and Italy have joined in expressing concerns.
In the U.S., Trump's full-throated support for the protesters has renewed the debate about how best to encourage change in Iran, whose government Trump deems a top national security threat.
Under former President Barack Obama, the U.S. took a more cautious approach during the last major wave of anti-government protests. It was concerned about enabling Iranian authorities to exploit longstanding suspicions of the U.S., dating back to American and British support for a 1953 coup toppling Iran's elected prime minister.
Ben Rhodes, Obama's former deputy national security adviser, said "too much ownership" of the protests by Trump would likely be counterproductive.
"I can't imagine that the people marching in the streets of Iran are looking to Donald Trump for inspiration or support," Rhodes said. "I just don't think it helps things for the White House to make this into a U.S.-versus-the-Iranian-government circumstance."
But former Sen. Joe Lieberman, a staunch Iran critic, said it's a given Tehran will portray dissent as externally provoked.
"That's a very weak excuse for American inaction and inconsistency with our own interests and values. I'm glad President Trump is not following that advice," Lieberman said in an interview.
It wasn't immediately clear what effect Trump's support was having on the protests, although Iran's state TV reported his tweets and some Iranians shared them online.
In a tweet on North Korea, meanwhile, Trump said possible talks between North and South Korea held mixed potential, while sanctions were beginning to take a toll on Pyongyang amid tensions over its nuclear and missile programs.
"Sanctions and 'other' pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea. Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea," Trump wrote in a post on Twitter.
"Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not – we will see!" Trump added, in a reference to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
