Iran riots: At least 500 people killed, according to NGO / Trump says Tehran 'wants to negotiate'
Increasingly violent protests in Iran. Photo: VALIDATED UGC / AP / Profimedia
Protests in Iran have killed more than 500 people, a human rights group said, as Tehran threatened to attack US military bases if Donald Trump followed through on threats to intervene on behalf of the protesters, Reuters reports and AFP.
As the Islamic Republic's clerics face their biggest demonstrations since 2022, Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene if force is used against protesters.
According to the latest figures – provided by activists inside and outside Iran – the US-based human rights organization HRANA said it had verified the deaths of 490 protesters and 48 members of the security forces, with more than 10,600 people arrested in two weeks of unrest.
Trump: Iran wants to negotiate
Trump said Sunday night that Iran “wants to negotiate” and that a meeting with the leaders of the Islamic Republic is being prepared, without ruling out military options for the United States to intervene.
Speaking aboard his Air Force One plane, the US president said Tehran was beginning to cross the red line it had set in killing protesters as part of its unprecedented three-year crackdown, saying the military was considering “very strong options”.
Trump was to meet with senior advisers on Tuesday to discuss options for Iran, a US official told Reuters on Sunday. The Wall Street Journal wrote that options include military strikes, the use of secret cyber weapons, expanding sanctions and providing online aid to anti-government sources.
Trump said he was in contact with Iranian opposition leaders. He also said, without elaborating, that Iranian leaders called him on Saturday and wanted to negotiate, and that he might talk with them.
VIDEO “Help! They're shooting us!”. Gunshots fired at protesters in Iran. People took to the streets again, under the drones of the authorities / Dozens of corpses, at the morgue in Tehran
Tehran continues to threaten Israel and the US
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf warned Washington not to make “a miscalculation”.
“Let's be clear: in the event of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories (Israel) as well as all American bases and ships will be our legitimate targets,” said Qalibaf, a former commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
The government on Sunday evening decreed three days of national mourning for the “martyrs of the resistance”, referring in particular to members of the security forces killed.
President Massoud Pezeshkian called on the population to take part in a “resistance march” across the country on Monday to denounce the violence committed by what he said were “urban terrorist criminals”.
State television broadcast images of burning buildings, including a mosque, as well as funeral processions of law enforcement officers who died in the riots.
The protests began on December 28 in response to rising prices, then widened against those who have ruled since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iranian authorities accused the US and Israel of fomenting unrest and called for a national rally on Monday to condemn “terrorist actions led by the United States and Israel”, state media reported.
The flow of information from Iran has been hampered by an internet blackout since Thursday. Trump said on Sunday he would talk to Elon Musk about restoring Internet access to Iran through his Starlink satellite service.
