Video shows an anti-regime protester climbed the balcony of on Friday, tore down the Islamic Republic’s flag, and replaced it with Iran’s pre-1979 “Lion and Sun” emblem.
The protester climbed the front of the Kensington embassy building, then took down the regime’s flag and raised the historic symbol linked to Iran’s monarchy before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, as a large crowd of anti-regime demonstrators cheered.
The Metropolitan Police stated that officers arrived at the scene and arrested two people — one for aggravated trespass and assaulting an emergency worker, and the other for aggravated trespass. Police added they are looking for another person for trespass. It wasn’t immediately known if the protester who took down the flag was among those arrested.
Digital contacted Iran’s Embassy in London for a comment but hadn’t received a response by the time this article was published.
The embassy protest occurs amid of unrest in years. President Trump has cautioned the regime that the U.S. will defend protesters if needed.
British-Iranian journalist Potkin Azarmehr noted that the current unrest is a stark contrast to Iran’s 2009 Green Movement, when protesters openly asked if the Obama administration backed them.
“How different from Obama’s era, when Iranian protesters chanted, ‘Obama, are you with us or with them?’” Azarmehr told Digital.
“Any international backing, whether from grassroots groups or governments, is encouraging,” he stated.
He said is important to protesters on the ground, but wondered why Western activist groups haven’t held visible demonstrations.
“Where are the Western elite activist protesters? Why aren’t they demonstrating? Are they supporting the ayatollahs? An outdated religious apartheid?”
Protests that started on December 28 over economic issues have since a direct challenge to Iran’s clerical leaders. Solidarity protests with Iranian demonstrators have also popped up in other major European cities like Paris and Berlin. A protest also happened outside the White House in Washington, D.C.
According to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, as of Saturday, have been killed and over 2,300 detained in Iran’s protests.
Some protests have featured chants in support of Iran’s former monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who died in 1980. His son, Reza Pahlavi, has publicly urged continued demonstrations. The Iranian regime has also shut down nationwide internet access.
During a Friday press conference in Washington, D.C., faced increasing pressure.
“Iran is in serious trouble,” Trump said. “It seems to me that people are taking control of certain cities that no one thought possible just a few weeks ago. We’re monitoring the situation very closely.”
Trump warned that the United States would if the regime uses mass violence.
“We’ll strike them very hard where it counts,” Trump said. “That doesn’t mean sending troops, but it means hitting them extremely hard where it hurts.”
Despite U.S. warnings, the Supreme Leader a forthcoming crackdown, The Associated Press reported.
On Saturday, Tehran intensified its threats: Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, warned that anyone participating in protests would be labeled an “enemy of God”—a charge punishable by death. Iranian state television carried the statement, which said even those who “aided rioters” would face the same charge.
“Prosecutors must promptly and carefully, using , prepare for the trial and firm action against those who, by betraying the nation and causing instability, seek foreign control of the country,” the statement said.
“Legal proceedings must be carried out without mercy, compassion, or leniency.”
’ Efrat Lachter, Greg Norman and