By Jana Choukeir, Nayera Abdallah and Tala Ramadan
DUBAI, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Iran said on Monday it was keeping communications open with the United States as President Donald Trump weighed responses to a violent crackdown on protests that have posed one of the biggest challenges to clerical rule since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Trump said on Sunday that the United States may meet with Iranian officials and that he is in contact with the opposition, putting pressure on the Islamic Republic’s leaders, including threats of possible military action in response to violence against protesters.
Iran has gone through waves of protests in the past, with crackdowns like the current bloody crackdown. But this time the leadership is facing demonstrations throughout the country that have evolved from complaints about dire economic hardships to calls of defiance for the downfall of the clerical establishment, and with its regional influence greatly reduced.
“The channel of communication between our Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and the US special envoy (Steve Witkoff) is open and messages are exchanged whenever necessary,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday.
Contacts also remain open through the traditional intermediary of Switzerland, he said.
“They (the United States) touched on some cases, ideas were presented and in general (…) the Islamic Republic is a country that has never left the negotiating table”. But he added that “contradictory messages” from the United States showed a lack of seriousness and were not convincing.
Araqchi reiterated in a briefing to foreign ambassadors in Tehran that the Islamic Republic was ready for war but also open to dialogue.
MORE THAN 500 KILLED, SAYS THE RIGHTS GROUP
US-based rights group HRANA said it had verified the deaths of 490 protesters and 48 security personnel, with more than 10,600 people arrested since the protests began on 28 December.
Iran has not given an official toll and Reuters could not independently verify the amounts. The flow of information from Iran has been hampered by an internet outage since Thursday.
Trump said on Sunday that Iran had called to negotiate on its nuclear program. Israel and the United States bombed Iranian nuclear sites in a 12-day war in June.
“Iran wants to negotiate, yes. We can meet with them. A meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what is happening before the meeting, but a meeting is being set up. Iran has called, they want to negotiate,” he told reporters on Air Force One.
Trump was due to meet with senior advisers on Tuesday to discuss options for Iran, a US official told Reuters. The Wall Street Journal reported that options included military strikes, the use of secret cyber weapons, expanding sanctions and providing online help to anti-government sources.
Hitting military installations can be very risky. Some elite military and security forces bases may be located in heavily populated areas so any attack ordered by Trump could cause heavy civilian casualties.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf warned Washington against “miscalculation”.
“Let’s be clear: in the event of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories (Israel) as well as all US bases and ships will be our legitimate target,” said Qalibaf, a former commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.
However, Tehran is still recovering from last year’s war, and its regional influence has been greatly weakened by strikes by allies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah since the attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel also killed top Iranian military commanders in the June war.
SITUATION ‘UNDER TOTAL CONTROL’, SAYS ARAQCHI
Iranian authorities accused the United States and Israel of fomenting unrest and called for a nationwide rally on Monday to condemn “terrorist actions led by the United States and Israel,” state media reported.
State TV broadcast live footage on Monday of large crowds attending a funeral procession for security forces killed in Shahrud and pro-government demonstrations in cities such as Kerman, Zahedan and Birjand, held “in condemnation of recent terrorist events”.
Araqchi said the situation in Iran was “under total control” after protest-related violence escalated over the weekend. He said Trump’s warning against Tehran of action if the protests turned bloody had motivated what he called terrorists to target protesters and security forces in order to invite foreign intervention.
The protests started in response to rising prices, before turning against the clerical rulers who have been governing 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.
Footage posted on social media on Saturday from Tehran showed large crowds marching at night, clapping and chanting. The crowd “has no end nor beginning,” a man is heard saying.
Trump said on Sunday that he will speak with Elon Musk about restoring internet access in Iran through his Starlink satellite service.
Araqchi said that the internet service will resume in coordination with the security authorities.
The authorities on Sunday declared three days of national mourning “in honor of the martyrs killed in the resistance against the United States and the Zionist regime,” according to state media.
Alan Eyre, a former US diplomat and Iran expert, thought the protests were likely to topple the establishment.
“I think it is more likely that he will eventually stop these protests, but he will come out of the process much weaker,” he told Reuters, noting that Iran’s elite still appeared cohesive and there was no organized opposition.
(Additional reporting by Elwely Elwelly in Dubai. Rami Ayyub, Maayan Lubell and Alexander Cornwell in Jerusalem, Steve Holland in WashingtonVideo verification by Mahezabin Syed, Eleanor Whalley and Marine DelrueWriting by Michael GeorgyEditing by Lincoln Feast, Michael Perry and Frances Kerry)