The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is at its highest level of alert at the order of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a senior Iranian official told The Telegraph on Friday.
As protests across Iran rage on more than two weeks, Khamenei has “placed his fate in the hands of the IRGC,” according to the official, as regime forces remain on alert levels that are “even higher than during the June war.”
The official claimed that Khamenei “is in closer contact with the IRGC than with the army or the police,” due to his belief that “the risk of IRGC defections is almost non-existent” and fear that members of other forces may defect, leaving him unprotected.
Protesters have begun targeting government officials and state facilities, including setting fire to an Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) office in Isfahan on Thursday.
According to The Telegraph, the chief justice of North Khorasan province reported that the prosecutor of Esfarayen city, Ali Akbar Hosseinzadeh, and several law enforcement officers were killed after a cabin they were sheltering in caught fire.
Regime military officer Mohammad Javad Bakhshian was also killed, The Telegraph stated, citing Iranian television broadcasts.
Some of Khamenei’s allies, such as regime-favored economist Saeed Laylaz, have encouraged the supreme leader to step down as anti-regime demonstrations intensify.
Another Iranian official told The Telegraph that “the establishment has never felt as threatened by protests as it does now.”
US President Trump's threats are regime's 'real concern'
The official added that the demonstrations themselves are not the only issue. “The real concern is [US President] Donald Trump’s threats. We have seen what he did in Venezuela.”
Trump has repeatedly stated that he would step in if there is regime brutality against protesters.
“If Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters… the United States of America will come to their rescue,” Trump posted on Truth Social last week, adding that the US is “locked and loaded and ready to go” should such an instance take place.
On Thursday, Trump reiterated that if Iranian regime forces “start killing people,” the US will “hit them really hard,” during an interview on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
Iranian officials fear that US intervention may trigger an “apocalyptic” war, according to The Telegraph.
Iranian underground missile cities, left intact during June’s joint US-Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear and weapons facilities, are additionally on “high alert,” officials said, threatening that “this time, it would be very different” if the US were to interfere again.
Alex Winston, James Genn, and Tobias Holcman contributed to this report.