Trump Suggests Iranians Would Resist if Armed

President Trump said in a radio interview this week that Iranians "would fight back" if they had weapons amid anti-government unrest and the government's response to protests. "They have to have guns. And I think they’re getting some guns. " The remarks have prompted Iranian dissidents, military analysts and some Republican lawmakers to discuss whether the United States should move beyond sanctions and support armed resistance networks inside Iran.

Fox News reported that the conversation revives elements of the Reagan Doctrine, the Cold War policy under which the U.S. backed anti-Soviet resistance movements in several countries.

Supporters of the approach argue that sanctions, diplomacy and unarmed protests have not produced significant change. They say the period following recent conflict with Iran may offer an opportunity to back groups inside the country. Brett Velicovich, founder of Powerus and a former U.S. military and intelligence specialist focused on drone warfare, told Fox News Digital that Iranians should receive tools to act.

"We need to give Iranians the tools now, and they’ll finish the job themselves," he said. Velicovich described the idea as "Reagan Doctrine 2.0" and pointed to the potential use of small arms, cheap FPV drones and loitering munitions against government forces.

"Drones democratize power," Velicovich said. Sardar Pashaei, director of the Hiwa Foundation and a former Iranian wrestling champion now living in the United States, told Fox News Digital that caution is needed. "I think we must be extremely cautious on this issue, especially publicly, because the regime can use it as a pretext to arrest protesters, fabricate cases and even justify executions," Pashaei said.

He added that for decades the government has used accusations of foreign ties to target dissidents. Pashaei said a better path would involve supporting civil society, restoring internet access and aiding democratic opposition groups that represent Iran's diversity.

Sen. , recently described what he called a "Second Amendment solution" and said weapons should be provided to Iranians so they could act against the government, according to Fox News.

Trump said during an earlier Fox News interview in April that his administration had tried to send firearms to protesters through Kurdish channels, though the effort did not succeed. Several Kurdish groups have denied receiving any such shipments. Pashaei noted that Kurdish opposition groups faced more than 30 drone and missile attacks during a ceasefire period.

He said four young Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were killed in those strikes. Opposition figures include exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose name has appeared in some protests, and the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran, known as MEK. The group has posted videos of actions against government targets following the execution of two of its members last month.

Other armed or semi-organized groups mentioned include Kurdish organizations, Baloch networks and underground cells operating inside Iran. One source familiar with opposition strategy discussions told Fox News that some supporters see the current period as a chance to identify and back local resistance networks.

Whether the U.S. will shift from pressure campaigns and sanctions toward direct support for such networks remains unclear.