The Iranian army said on Saturday it would safeguard strategic infrastructure and public property and urged Iranians to thwart "the enemy's plots", as the clerical establishment steps up efforts to quell the country's biggest protests in years.

Iran’s armed forces have been placed at the highest level of readiness, with hundreds of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and regular army units on full alert in response to perceived threats from the United States and Israel, state media reported.

Amid a surge of violent protests in Iran, Australia on Wednesday urged its citizens to leave the country immediately, warning

These gestures belong to a long and checkered tradition of American regime-change adventurism, but they may be very useful in influencing risk calculations within Iran’s military. Iran is not held together by one coercive institution but by two.

Iran’s military warned it will crush any hostile act after the president said the country is effectively at war with the U.S.

Pockets of protests erupting across Iran over the past week have intensified pressure on a dysfunctional government struggling to manage a spiraling economic crisis.

Iran condemned the US military operation in Venezuela that led to the capture of President Nicolas Maduro as "state terrorism" and a violation of the UN Charter at an emergency Security Council session on Monday.

In Iran, access to a stable, state-set currency exchange rate is reserved for a privileged few — and economic networks linked to the Revolutionary Guard sit closest to the front of the queue. View on