India, Jan. 9 -- WASHINGTON, United States, January 9 - President Donald Trump has issued a stark public threat to Iran over its handling of domestic protests, promising severe U.S. retaliation if demonstrators are killed. However, his administration is simultaneously displaying strategic patience, declining to formally embrace the country's most prominent exiled opposition figure despite the show of support for the protest movement.

In a Thursday interview with Hugh Hewitt, President Trump delivered an unambiguous warning to Tehran. "I have let them know that if they start killing people. we are going to hit them very hard," he stated. He acknowledged some protest deaths might be from stampedes but emphasized that deliberate state viole...