Paul Moss

The government, the president, certainly do sound unusually conciliatory talking about the need to understand the protesters' concerns.

What should we read into that?

If we look back at the protests three years ago, those started over the attempts to crack down on women who weren't following strict dress codes.

And since then, women in Iran have actually been flouting these rules far more widely than before.

In some ways, they won in that protest.

And I wonder if that's given a sort of momentum and optimism to the protesters who are out on the streets now.

Bahman Kalbassi, and we'll hear more about the protests and about a Nobel laureate imprisoned by Iran later in the podcast.

But first, while Iran's rulers face renewed opposition on the streets, they've also come under renewed threats from the United States.

Donald Trump said on Monday he'd seen reports that Iran was once again developing a nuclear and ballistic weapons programme.

He said he'd support strikes against the country if this proved true.

Then on Tuesday, Washington announced sanctions on individuals and entities in Iran and also in Venezuela, saying they were trading weapons parts and technology.

Our correspondent in Washington, Sean Dilley, gave me more details.

They are, as you say, his targets.

Venezuela and Iran have for a while been perhaps Donald Trump's main enemies in his own eyes.

Are they really working together?

Because it is remarkable to see these two linked in the way that they have been.

The Israeli Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu, was meeting with Donald Trump on Monday at Donald Trump's residence, Mar-a-Lago.

Presumably this is something that emerged from their discussions.

It hardly seems a coincidence that the sanctions have been issued now.

For Venezuela, sanctions may not exactly sound like the biggest threat it faces from the US right now.