Iran Protests Live Updates: Iranian parliament warns of jihad if Supreme Leader is attacked, says report

Hackers disrupted Iranian state television satellite transmissions to air footage supporting the country's exiled crown prince and calling on security forces to not “point your weapons at the people,” online video showed early Monday, the latest disruption to follow nationwide protests in the country.

The hacking comes as the death toll in a crackdown by authorities that smothered the demonstrations reached at least 4,029 people, activists said. They fear the number will grow far higher as information leaks out of a country still gripped by the government's decision to shut down the internet. -AP

In the wake of spiraling tensions between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s violent crackdown on protests, analysts warn that the internal upheaval affecting the Iranian theocracy could carry nuclear proliferation risks.

While in recent days US President Donald Trump seemed to have backed away from a military strike on Iran, he called Saturday for an end to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s nearly 40-year reign in Iran.

Trump’s comments came in response to Khamenei branding Trump a “criminal” for supporting protesters in Iran, and blamed demonstrators for causing thousands of deaths.

Meanwhile, a US aircraft carrier, which days earlier had been in the South China Sea, passed Singapore overnight to enter the Strait of Malacca — putting it on a route that could bring it to the Middle East.With those dangers, analysts warn Iran's nuclear material could be at risk as well.

A few thousand demonstrators gathered Sunday in Los Angeles in support of protesters in Iran.Marchers, some waving the flag of Iran before the Islamic Revolution, rallied downtown near Los Angles City Hall. The police department estimated the “Solidarity with the People of Iran” event drew about 4,000 demonstrators.

The rally was peaceful and there were no arrests, the department said. Activists say a crackdown on nationwide protests against the theocracy in Iran has killed thousands of people. Protesters have flooded the streets in Iran’s capital of Tehran and its second-largest city. Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian community outside of Iran.

Protesters participate in a demonstration in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, in Berlin, Germany. (Photo: AP)

At least 5,000 people have been killed in Iran in the protests which started on December 28 against the clerical regime’s economic woes, including about 500 security personnel, an Iranian official said on Sunday.

The official cited verified figures and accused “terrorists and armed rioters” of killing “innocent Iranians”, Reuters reported.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has, for the first time, publicly admitted that thousands of people were killed during recent protests in the country.

In a speech on Saturday, he said “several thousand” people had died, adding that some were killed “in an inhuman, savage manner”. He blamed the United States and Israel for the violence, according to Iranian state media, as reported by the BBC.

“Those linked to Israel and the US caused massive damage and killed several thousand,” Khamenei said.

Read the full story here.

US President Donald Trump Saturday said Iran should seek new leadership, calling an end to the long rule of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” Trump told POLITICO as protests that had called for the fall of the Iranian leadership appeared to ease.

Trump’s remarks came after he was read a series of hostile posts published on X by Khamenei, in which the Iranian leader accused the US president of being responsible for deaths and unrest in Iran.