Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is reportedly planning to flee the country for Russia with up to 20 close aides and family members if unrest intensifies or security forces fail to contain protests, The Times reported.
The plan reportedly includes securing assets, properties abroad, and cash for their escape.
Protests over soaring inflation have continued for a ninth day across 222 locations in Iran, leaving more than 20 dead and nearly 1,000 arrested, according to US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
#Breaking: People in the city of #Lahijan, in northern #Iran, are protesting tonight against Iran’s Islamic regime. Protesters can be heard chanting “death to the dictator.”#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/fd0tS3OxLu
— Babak Taghvaee – The Crisis Watch (@BabakTaghvaee1) January 5, 2026
#Breaking: Tonight, people in #Ilam, a city in southwestern #Iran, are continuing their protests against the Islamic regime, despite the fact that the regime’s security forces have killed many protesters in the city over the past several days.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/lE12xNNoNP
— Babak Taghvaee – The Crisis Watch (@BabakTaghvaee1) January 5, 2026
On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump warned that the U.S. could intervene if protesters are killed. “If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they are going to get hit very hard by the United States,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the State of Israel stood in solidarity with the Iranian people and added: “It is very possible that we are standing at a moment when the Iranian people are taking their destiny into their own hands.”
Iran criticized the U.S. and Israeli statements, saying they constitute interference in the country’s internal affairs and incite violence.
“Actions or statements by figures such as the Israeli prime minister or certain radical and hardline US officials regarding Iran’s internal affairs amount, under international norms, to nothing more than incitement to violence, terrorism, and killing,” said spokesperson Esmail Baghaei.
Baghaei said Iranians remain deeply distrustful of Washington and Israel, pointing to past actions by both countries and added that the public would not be swayed by what he called “deceptive rhetoric.”
