Iran’s president warned on Sunday that any US strike on the country would provoke a “harsh response,” and that any attack on its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would be “tantamount to a full-scale war on the Iranian nation.”

Masoud Pezeshkian’s threats came as the Islamic Republic’s judiciary hinted that it may go forward with executions of people arrested amid the recent unrest, which seems to have quelled after a violent crackdown.

Limited internet access briefly returned in Iran on Sunday but went down again shortly thereafter, as news broke that the chief executive of Irancell, Iran’s second-largest mobile phone operator, was dismissed for failing to comply with the shutdown.

Due in part to the internet blackout, the exact scale of the killings that took place amid the mass protests remains unclear. The demonstrations were sparked by an economic crisis, but grew into calls for the fall of the regime.

A Sunday Times report, based on information from doctors in Iran, said more than 16,500 people were killed and more than 330,000 injured during the unrest. An Iranian official said authorities had verified at least 5,000 people had been killed in protests, including about 500 security personnel.

In a post to X on Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said: “An attack on the great leader of our country [Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei] is tantamount to a full-scale war with the Iranian nation.” In his post, Pezeshkian also blamed the US and its allies for the hardship experienced by Iranians.

The statement came a day after US President Donald Trump called Khamenei a “sick man” in an interview with Politico, and said, “It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran.” It appeared to be the first time Trump had called for the end of Khamenei’s rule in Iran.

Despite having repeatedly threatened to attack Iran if the regime were to start killing protesters, Trump has held off on any immediate military action against the Islamic Republic. He has moved US military assets into the region but has not specified what he might do.

According to Iran International, an opposition-allied site, Iranian state television was hacked on........

© The Times of Israel