DUBAI: Unrest in Iran has killed greater than 500 folks, a rights group stated on Sunday, as Tehran threatened to focus on US army bases if President Donald Trump carries out threats to intervene on behalf of protesters.
With the Islamic Republic’s institution going through the most important demonstrations since 2022, Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene if drive is used on protesters.
In keeping with its newest figures – from activists inside and out of doors Iran – US-based rights group HRANA stated it had verified the deaths of 490 protesters and 48 safety personnel, with greater than 10,600 folks arrested in two weeks of unrest.
Iran has not given an official toll and Reuters was unable to independently confirm the tolls.
Trump was to be briefed by his officers on Tuesday on choices over Iran together with army strikes, utilizing secret cyber weapons, widening sanctions and offering on-line assist to anti-government sources, the Wall Road Journal stated on Sunday.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf warned Washington towards “a miscalculation”.
“Allow us to be clear: within the case of an assault on Iran, the occupied territories (Israel) in addition to all US bases and ships will probably be our official goal,” stated Qalibaf, a former commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.
AUTHORITIES INTENSIFY CRACKDOWN
The protests started on December 28 in response to hovering costs, earlier than turning towards the clerical rulers who’ve ruled for the reason that 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iranian authorities accuse the US and Israel of fomenting bother and known as for a nationwide rally on Monday to sentence “terrorist actions led by america and Israel” in Iran, state media reported.
The stream of knowledge from Iran has been hampered by an web blackout since Thursday.
Footage posted on social media on Saturday from Tehran confirmed giant crowds marching alongside a avenue at night time, clapping and chanting. The gang “has no finish nor starting,” a person is heard saying.
In footage from the northeastern metropolis of Mashhad, smoke will be seen billowing into the night time sky from fires on the street, masked protesters, and a street strewn with particles, one other video posted on Saturday confirmed. Explosions might be heard.
Reuters verified the areas.
State TV confirmed dozens of physique luggage on the bottom on the Tehran coroner’s workplace, saying the useless have been victims of occasions attributable to “armed terrorists”, in addition to footage of family members gathered outdoors the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Heart in Tehran ready to determine our bodies.
Three Israeli sources, who have been current for Israeli safety consultations over the weekend, stated Israel was on a high-alert footing for the opportunity of any US intervention.
An Israeli army official stated the protests have been an inner Iranian matter, however Israel’s army was monitoring developments and was prepared to reply “with drive if essential”.
Israel and Iran fought a 12-day battle in June final yr, which america briefly joined by attacking key nuclear installations. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at Israel and an American air base in Qatar.
IRAN DENOUNCES ‘RIOTERS AND TERRORISTS’
Whereas the Iranian authorities have weathered earlier protests, the most recent has unfolded with Tehran nonetheless recovering from final yr’s battle and with its regional place weakened by blows to allies similar to Lebanon’s Hezbollah since October 7, 2023.
Iran’s unrest comes as Trump flexes US muscle tissue on the world stage, having ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and floating the opportunity of buying Greenland by buy or army drive.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a TV interview, stated Israel and the US have been masterminding destabilization and that Iran’s enemies had introduced in “terrorists … who set mosques on hearth …. assault banks, and public properties”.
“Households, I ask you: don’t enable your younger kids to affix rioters and terrorists who behead folks and kill others,” he stated, including that the federal government was able to hearken to the folks and to resolve financial issues.
Alan Eyre, a former US diplomat and Iran skilled, thought it unlikely that the protests would topple the institution.
“I feel it extra possible that it places these protests down finally, however emerge9s from the method far weaker,” he instructed Reuters, noting that Iran’s elite nonetheless appeared cohesive and there was no organized opposition.
Iranian state TV broadcast funeral processions in western cities similar to Gachsaran and Yasuj for safety personnel killed in protests.
State TV stated 30 members of the safety forces could be buried within the central metropolis of Isfahan and that six extra have been killed by “rioters” in Kermanshah within the west.
US READY TO HELP, SAYS TRUMP
Trump, posting on social media on Saturday, stated: “Iran is taking a look at FREEDOM, maybe like by no means earlier than. The USA stands prepared to assist!!!”
In a telephone name on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned the opportunity of US intervention in Iran, in response to an Israeli supply current for the dialog.
Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s final shah and a distinguished voice within the fragmented opposition, stated Trump had noticed Iranians’ “indescribable bravery”. “Don’t abandon the streets,” Pahlavi, who relies within the US, wrote on X.
Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the Nationwide Council of Resistance of Iran, a Paris-based Iranian opposition group, wrote on X that individuals in Iran had “asserted management of public areas and reshaped Iran’s political panorama”.
Her group, often known as Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK), joined the 1979 revolution however later broke from the ruling clerics and fought them in the course of the Iran-Iraq battle within the Eighties.
Netanyahu, talking throughout a cupboard assembly, stated Israel was intently monitoring developments. “All of us hope that the Persian nation will quickly be free of the yoke of tyranny,” he stated.
