Iran's president warned Sunday that his country would consider any US attack on its top leader to be a declaration of war. In what appeared to be a response to President Trump's comment the day before to Politico that "It's time to look for new leadership in Iran," Masoud Pezeshkian blamed recent protests on the US and said an American attempt to remove Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would result in "a full-scale war with the Iranian nation," the Guardian reports.
Pezeshkian cited long-running US sanctions and "hostility" as major drivers of hardship in Iran. The protests began at the end of December over inflation, a falling currency, and economic pressures, then broadened into calls for political change. Last week, Trump urged Iranians to "take over your institutions" and said "help is on its way," as US officials weighed, then shelved, possible military strikes on Iran.
Also on Sunday, a US-based activist agency said it has verified at least 3,766 deaths during the protests and bloody crackdown, per the AP. The Human Rights Activists News Agency said that death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution. Iranian officials have not given a clear death toll, but Khamenei said Saturday that the protests had left "several thousand" people dead.