Foreign policy analyst Walid Phares said on Newsmax on Saturday that Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is "detached from reality" after he blamed President Donald Trump for the continued protests across Iranian cities.
Further, Phares told Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend" that the Iranian leader's call for Trump to "pay attention to your country" means that "somewhere some money will be paid to create chaos in the United States."
"That's the strategy of the Islamic regime anyway," said Phares, labeling the ayatollah's comments as reflecting a "very snobbish attitude" toward the Iranians who are protesting.
The U.S. response, said Phares, should include a direct warning from Trump to Iran's leadership, saying Khamenei should be cautioned "the way only Trump can do."
Trump this week said that he let Iran know "they're going to have to pay hell" if "they start killing people, which they tend to do during their riots."
"If they do it, we're going to hit them very hard," the president said. "They've been told very strongly, even more strongly than I'm speaking to you right now, that if they do that, they're going to have to pay hell."
Phares said the demonstrations appear broader and more sustained than previous waves of unrest.
He described protests in "almost all Iranian cities" and said participants are largely young people who, in his view, learned from earlier crackdowns.
The immediate priority should be preventing the government from harming the population, with politics to be determined later, Phares added.
He also pointed to what he called a key shift among Iran's traditional commercial class. "The bazaar now is against the regime," Phares said, calling it "very telling" because of the Revolutionary Guard's influence over banks and the economy.
Phares said changes could also be unfolding beyond public view, and he cited claims of videos from members of Iran's regular army, the Artesh.
Any U.S. action should focus narrowly on armed units he identified as central to repression, he said, adding that targeting militia positions, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij, could help curb violence against demonstrators.
"We don't need to do any other destruction in Iran, and the Iranian people will take over," Phares said.
Middle East expert Gerard Filitti, also on Saturday's show, said Iran's leadership should take Trump's warnings seriously, pointing to prior U.S. actions and the possibility of military pressure without deploying ground troops.
Filitti said Washington should avoid the perception of choosing Iran's next leader, even if the United States clearly opposes the current government.
He said protests are driven by domestic anger over economic conditions, including steep currency devaluation and inflation, and said demonstrators are demanding the regime's removal.
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