Iran said on Monday it is keeping communications open with the US as president Donald Trump weighed responses to a deadly crackdown on nationwide protests, which pose one of the stiffest challenges to clerical rule since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Mr Trump said on Sunday the US may meet Iranian officials and he was in contact with Iran’s opposition, while piling pressure on its leaders, including threatening possible military action over lethal violence against protesters.
US-based rights group HRANA said it had verified the deaths of 599 people – 510 protesters and 89 security personnel. Since the protests began on December 28th and spread around the country, 10,694 people have been arrested, the group said. Reuters was unable to confirm the figures independently. Verified video footage showed Iranians at the Kahrizak Forensic Centre in Tehran, standing over rows of body bags on Sunday.
The flow of information from the Islamic Republic has been hampered by an internet blackout since Thursday.
Iran’s leaders, their regional clout much reduced, are facing fierce demonstrations that evolved from complaints about dire economic hardships to defiant calls for the fall of the deeply entrenched clerical establishment.
But despite the massive scale of the protests, there are no signs of splits in the Shia clerical leadership, military or security forces, and demonstrators have no clear central leadership. The opposition is fragmented.
Protesters gathered on a highway in northeastern Iran chanting slogans as fires burned around them. Videos posted to social media January 10th. Video: Reuters
In verified video footage, Iranians gathered at the Kahrizak Forensic Centre in Tehran on Sunday, standing over rows of dark body bags.
Mr Trump said on Sunday that Iran had called to negotiate about its disputed nuclear programme. Israel and the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites in a 12-day war in June. “A meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what is happening before the meeting,” he told reporters on Air Force One.
Mr Trump was to meet with senior advisers on Tuesday to discuss options for Iran, a US official told Reuters. The Wall Street Journal reported that those included military strikes, using secret cyber weapons, widening sanctions and providing online help to anti-government sources.
Striking military installations could be highly risky, as some may be located in heavily populated areas.
Iran has not given an official death toll, but blames the bloodshed on US interference and what it calls Israeli and US-backed terrorists. State-run media has focused attention on the deaths of security forces.
Iran’s ministry of intelligence said on Monday it had detained “terrorist” teams responsible for acts including killing paramilitary volunteers loyal to the clerical establishment, torching mosques and attacking military sites, according to a statement carried by state media.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said “contradictory messages” from the US showed a lack of seriousness, but that contacts continued.
“The communication channel between our foreign minister Abbas Araqchi and the US special envoy [Steve Witkoff] is open and messages are exchanged whenever necessary,” he said, adding that contacts also remain open through traditional intermediary Switzerland.
[ Iranian student (23) killed during protests shot in head ‘from close range’Opens in new window ]
Mr Araqchi reiterated in a briefing to foreign ambassadors in Tehran that the Islamic Republic was ready for war but also open to dialogue.
The ambassadors of Britain, Italy, Germany and France in Tehran were summoned to the foreign ministry, semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Monday, and asked to relay to their governments Tehran’s request to withdraw their support for the protests.
Iran considers any political or media support for the protests “an unacceptable intervention in the internal security of the country”, Tasnim added.
A French diplomatic source said the ambassadors had strongly expressed their concerns.
Addressing a large crowd in Tehran’s Enqelab Square on Monday, parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Iranians were fighting a war on four fronts – “economic war, psychological warfare, military war against the US and Israel, and today a war against terrorism”.
Mr Araqchi said on Monday that a total of 53 mosques and 180 ambulances had been set on fire since the protests erupted.
Iranians block a street during a protest in Kermanshah on January 8th. Photograph: Kamran/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty
CCTV footage from inside Tehran’s Abuzar Mosque showed a dozen people, most wearing face masks, ransacking the structure, throwing books on to the ground and destroying furniture last week. Reuters verified the time stamp and location. State media reported that the mosque was set on fire on January 9th.
Parliament speaker Mr Qalibaf warned Washington against “a miscalculation”.
“Let us be clear: in the case of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories [Israel] as well as all US bases and ships will be our legitimate target,” said Mr Qalibaf, a former commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.
However, Tehran is still recovering from last year’s war, and its regional clout has been weakened by blows to allies such as Lebanon’s Hizbullah since the October 7th, 2023, attack on Israel. Israel also killed top Iranian military commanders in the June war.
The protests began in response to soaring prices that have worsened daily hardships, before turning against the clerical rulers who have governed for more than 45 years.
Iranians have grown increasingly resentful of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, whose business interests including oil and gas, construction and telecommunications are worth billions of dollars.
Mr Araqchi said on Monday the situation was “under total control”, after violence linked to protests spiked over the weekend.
He said internet service would be resumed in co-ordination with security authorities. – Reuters