TEHRAN - A senior sociologist and political analyst says U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seek to foment turmoil in Iran.

Hamidreza Jala’ipour made the comments in an interview with the Iranian official news agency IRNA, touching upon the recent riots in Iran instigated by foreign-backed mercenaries and terrorists.

Recently, the enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran provoked riots in the country through their trained operatives and mercenaries. The armed rioters vandalized public property, triggered terror, and killed security forces as well as ordinary people by hijacking peaceful protests.

The sociologist noted that people are entitled to raise objections and that the Iranian government has listened to people’s grievances, “but criminal Trump and Netanyahu are trying to drag Iran into chaos through their comments and interference.”

He explained that the peaceful protestors in Iran were right to be discontent over economic instability and livelihood issues; however, he urged Iranians to remain vigilant against the U.S. president’s machinations to take advantage of peaceful protests and find a pretext to trigger civil strife in the country.

Jala’ipour underlined that Trump and Netanyahu would never care about the Iranian people and would not like Iran to be a developed country, adding that Washington has an infamous track record when it comes to imposing sanctions on Iran.

He said Trump pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), restored economic sanctions against Iran and attacked Iranian nuclear and military sites in June 2025 along with Israel.

On June 13, 2025, Israel launched a blatant and unprovoked act of aggression against Iran, triggering a 12-day war that killed well over 1,000 people in the country, including military commanders, nuclear scientists, and ordinary civilians. The United States also entered the war directly by bombing three Iranian nuclear sites in a grave violation of international law.

In response, the Iranian Armed Forces targeted strategic sites across the occupied territories as well as the al-Udeid air base in Qatar, the largest American military base in West Asia.

After the June war, the Americans changed their tactics and decided to intensify economic sanctions and put pressure on the European trio of Britain, France, and Germany to trigger the snapback mechanism to officially return the sanctions lifted under the JCPOA.