Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Tehran and other cities across Iran on Friday to protest Israel's illegal and escalating assault as the U.S.—Israel's top ally and arms supplier—considers entering the war, which killed or wounded more than 2,600 Iranians during its first week.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera's Tohid Asadi called Friday's demonstrations "unprecedentedly large."
"We have to keep in mind that a considerable proportion of Tehran's population has decided to get out of the city amid the attacks, but still we see huge numbers," said Asadi. "Since day one of these strikes, we've seen this strong sense of anger from ordinary citizens. Now they're taking to the streets to express that."
Protests also broke out in the capitals of Iraq and Lebanon as Israel and Iran traded missile strikes, and Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, arrived in Geneva for talks with European Union and United Kingdom officials.
In an interview ahead of the talks, Araghchi called the United States "a partner in this crime" and said that Iran is unwilling to engage in negotiations "until this aggression stops."
Citing an unnamed senior Iranian official, Reutersreported that Iran "was ready to discuss limitations on uranium enrichment but that any proposal for zero enrichment—not being able to enrich uranium at all—would be rejected, 'especially now under Israel's strikes.'"
Iraqis protest Israel's strikes on Iran, following the weekly Friday noon prayers in Baghdad's Sadr City on June 20, 2025. (Photo: Murtadha Ridha/AFP via Getty Images)
The mass demonstrations came as U.S. President Donald Trump weighed options—including the use of a nuclear weapon—to directly join Israel's attack on Iran. The White House said Thursday that a final decision from the president will come within two weeks.
Ryan Costello, policy director at the National Iranian American Council, said in a statement Friday that "the use of nuclear weapons to prevent the mere possibility of nuclear weapons is not strategy—it is a waking nightmare."
"A nuclear strike would massacre Iranians indiscriminately and unleash devastating radioactive fallout across Iran and the region, spreading terror, panic, and irreversible harm," said Costello. "We should never have come to this point. But we are here. And we must raise our voices, urgently, against Netanyahu's war of aggression and the warmongers cheering it on. The path forward is diplomacy, not devastation. We must shut this Pandora’s box before more horrors are unleashed."
Iraqis protest Israel's strikes on Iran, following the weekly Friday noon prayers in Baghdad's Sadr City on June 20, 2025. (Photo: Murtadha Ridha/AFP via Getty Images)