Trump tells the Iranians 'help' on its way

 US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Iranians should continue nationwide protests and take over the country's institutions as authorities there cracked down on mass demonstrations.
Trump did not specify what form the promised 'help' would take, in a message that backed regime change in the Islamic Republic -- marking a change in the US stance from one day ago.
On Monday, his Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that a channel for diplomacy with Tehran remained open, saying that Iran was taking a 'far different tone' in private discussions with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Trump on Monday also announced a 25-percent tariff on any country doing business with Iran, ramping up pressure as a rights group estimated the crackdown has killed at least 648 people.
Iranian authorities insist they have regained control after successive nights of mass protests that have posed one of the biggest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.
But rights groups accuse the government of using live fire against protesters and masking the scale of the crackdown with an internet blackout that has now lasted more than four days.

The price of oil rose on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump announced steep tariffs on anyone trading with Iran, sparking expectations that the threat would restrict supplies of crude.

'Supply concerns remained front and centre after President Trump announced new tariffs on US imports from any countries trading with Iran, raising fears of further disruptions from one of OPEC's largest producers,' said David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, a financial services provider.  

The UK government summoned Tuesday the Iranian ambassador in London 'to answer for the horrific reports' emerging from Iran amid a deadly crackdown on protests, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said.'The minister for the Middle East, at my instruction, has summoned the Iranian ambassador to underline the gravity of this moment,' she told MPs in a statement to parliament.  

  The German foreign ministry said Tuesday it had summoned Iran's ambassador in Berlin and urged the Iranian government to 'end the violence against its own citizens' amid widespread protests.