Amid the crackdown on protesters in Iran, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said Washington “supports the brave people”. While Supreme Leader Khamenei alleged a US role in the protests, Trump renewed an earlier threat of military strikes if peaceful protesters are killed.

Marco Rubio has weighed in on protests against the Iranian government. Amid the escalation, the country's supreme leader accused protesters of trying "to please the president of the US" as they are facing the death penalty.

Protesters were "ruining their own streets" to please President Donald Trump, who has threatened intervention, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday.

Many Iranian opposition activists are hoping the current unrest could be the beginning of the end of the country's hardline Islamic regime.

Protesters angry over Iran's ailing economy have conducted a sit-in at Tehran's Grand Bazaar. Security forces fired tear gas and dispersed demonstrators as the market shut down.

Demonstrations first began in Tehran last month - triggered by a sharp slide in the value of the rial currency - but have since spread to all 31 of the country's provinces.

Protests fueled by crippling economic conditions have swept across Iran’s provinces in recent days, as authorities revert to their tested playbook of cracking down without offering viable solutions to grievances driving public anger.

As Iran is gripped by new protests, many people there are focused on the U.S. raid in Venezuela and wonder whether the same could occur in Tehran.

Iran was largely cut off from the outside world on Friday after authorities blacked out the internet to curb growing unrest, as video showed buildings ablaze in anti-government protests raging in several cities across the country.