Credit: Vahid/X
Donald Trump has been warned that the US military needs more time to prepare for strikes against Iran, as another night of protests rocked the country.
The US President is said to be contemplating military action and has been presented with a range of targets, including elements of the security services responsible for the bloody suppression of the demonstrations.
But commanders in the region have told officials they need to “consolidate US military positions and prepare defenses” before carrying out any strikes that could lead to retaliation.
Mr Trump has threatened to “get involved” in the unrest that threatens to topple the Iranian regime, warning that it will hit Iran “very, very, where it hurts” if security forces continue to kill protesters.
He was briefed on options that include striking non-military targets in Tehran or elements of the regime’s security apparatus.
The protests continued overnight and are now said to be more intense and widespread than the 2022 hijab demonstrations. About 192 people have now been killed, rights groups said on Sunday morning, although the true toll is obscured by internet outages.
Protesters block a road in Tehran – MAHSA / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
Videos emerged on Sunday morning showing live ammunition being used against protesters in the city of Abyek, northwest of Tehran.
Senior regime officials suggested that the protesters should face the death penalty, while another likened them to terrorists.
On Sunday, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, warned the White House against “miscalculation”.
“Let’s 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 targets,” said the former commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Two US C-17A military transport planes took off from Germany and appeared to be heading for the Middle East on Saturday evening, as speculation about a potential strike mounted.
The New York Times quoted US officials as saying that any military action must be carefully weighed to avoid galvanizing public support for the regime.
Credit: @IHRights/X
Israel’s military is reportedly on high alert in case of an attack by the United States. Benjamin Netanyahu has warned repeatedly in recent weeks that he will not allow Iran to rebuild its nuclear or ballistic missile programs.
The IDF may support US airstrikes as an opportunity to destroy its own list of targets. However, even if Israel chose not to take offensive action alongside the United States, Iran would still likely fire missiles at the Jewish state.
Iran and its international supporters claimed that the protests were incited as part of a “Zionist” plan.
On Saturday night, the demonstrations again defied the crackdown, with thousands taking to the streets despite reports that hundreds have been killed by security forces in the past three days. Hospitals are said to be overwhelmed with patients suffering from gunshot wounds.
Videos posted on social media showed large crowds in several cities, including Tehran and Mashhad in the east, where vehicles were set on fire.
The footage emerged despite an almost total internet shutdown, which made communication with the outside world largely impossible.
Credit: Vahid/X
The blackout “has now passed 60 hours… The censorship measure presents a direct threat to the safety and well-being of Iranians at a key moment for the country’s future”, the monitoring group NetBlocks said early Sunday.
The Attorney General of Iran said that anyone who protests will be considered an “enemy of God”, a crime punishable by death.
Ahmad-Reza Radan, the head of the national police, said the authorities had made “significant” arrests on Saturday night, without giving details.
Ali Larijani, Iran’s security chief, made a distinction between protests due to economic hardship – which he called “completely understandable” – and “riots”, accusing the latter of using methods “very similar to terrorist groups”, according to the Tasnim news agency.
The protests, initially caused by rampant inflation, are believed to have spread to more than 100 towns and villages across all of Iran’s provinces.
Israeli intelligence officials told Hebrew-language media that the unrest has now surpassed the 2022 hijab protests in both scale and intensity.
Protesters are now openly calling for an end to the clerical rule of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.
Kemi Badenoch suggested on Sunday that she might support Western military intervention to help protesters against Iran’s leaders.
In an interview with the BBC, she said: “Iran would be very happy to destroy the UK if it thought it could remove it. It tried to kill people on our soil, it still does.
“He calls us the little Satan, so no, I have no problem removing a regime that is trying to harm us. It has its terrorist outpost with Hezbollah all over the world.”
Asked about the possibility of Western intervention, she said that the situation was hypothetical but “the calculation must always be about our national interest”.
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