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Secretary of State Marco Rubio doubled down on U.S. support for Iranian protesters early Saturday morning as the current regime cracked down on growing unrest in the country.

Protests in Iran, the largest in years, are targeting the theocratic government that has been in place since 1979. Citizens have long weathered the economic costs of international sanctions on the regime but took to the streets when inflation surpassed 40% in December.

“The United States supports the brave people of Iran,” Rubio wrote on social media at 12:30 a.m.

Trump said Jan. 2 that the U.S. would come to the rescue “if Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom.”  Earlier on Jan. 9, Trump warned Tehran in comments to reporters, “You better not start shooting because we'll start shooting too.”

An Iranian rights group said it documented 65 deaths, including 50 protesters and 15 security personnel as of January 9. The Norway-based human rights group Hengaw said more than 2,500 people had been arrested over the past two weeks.

Overnight, Iranian authorities arrested what it called 100 “armed rioters” in a town near Tehran, according to the semi-official Tasnim News Agency.  In a statement broadcast by state TV, a security force known for quelling unrest accused terrorists of targeting military and law enforcement bases over the past two nights.

In videos and images that have slipped past internet censors in Iran, protesters call for the overthrow of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the return of the exiled son of Iran's last king, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

Pahlavi is based in Virginia and supports the protesters. He wrote on social media less than an hour before Rubio’s post: “Our goal is no longer merely to come to the streets; the goal is to prepare for seizing the centers of cities and holding them.”

“I too am preparing to return to the homeland so that at the time of our national revolution's victory, I can be beside you, the great nation of Iran,” Pahlavi wrote. “I believe that day is very near.”

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Khamenei on Jan. 9 accused protesters of acting on behalf of Trump, saying rioters were attacking public properties and warning that Tehran would not tolerate people acting as "mercenaries for foreigners".

The leaders of France, Britain and Germany also issued a joint statement condemning the killing of protesters.