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Welcome to News Hour on the BBC World Service with me, Gary O'Donoghue.

We begin, of course, in Iran, where protests have continued in the country,

with some human rights groups suggesting that the

numbers of those killed and injured are likely to be much higher than previously thought.

The government has announced three days of mourning for what it calls the martyrs who have

been killed or injured in the process, according to state TV, along with a call for pro-government marches to be held.

Iran's rulers have also said they would retaliate should the threat to intervene from Donald Trump

materialize. Let's start in Mashad, a city in the northeast of the country, where protesters hid

behind barricades as security forces fired shots from a footbridge.

And these are the sounds of protesters in Tehran,

the capital on Saturday evening,

chanting slogans demanding the end of clerical rule.

Well, today the Iranian President, Massoud Pajerskian, has been speaking on state TV.

The United States and Israel are sitting there,

giving instructions to these people, telling them,

go ahead, we're backing you.

The same ones who struck this country and killed our young people and our children,

and now giving them orders, telling them you do this work. We are with you.

You go and carry out acts of sabotage, and we will support you from behind.

And that was the words of the Iranian president. Well, earlier, I spoke to Ali Vez,

director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group. What did he make of the president's comments?

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