Iran warns it will target US troops and Israel if America strikes over protests
With the internet shut down and phone lines cut in Iran, it has become more difficult to gauge demonstrations from abroad. However, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, while the number of deaths in the protests increased, 2,600 people were detained.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Parliament Speaker warned that the US military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America attacked the Islamic Republic as President Donald Trump has threatened. Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said MPs rushed to the podium in the Iranian parliament and shouted “Death to America!” He threatened by shouting.
Those abroad fear the information blackout will embolden hardliners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown, despite Trump’s warnings that he is prepared to strike Iran to protect peaceful demonstrators.
Trump said on social media, “Iran is looking at FREEDOM perhaps like never before. USA is ready to help!!!” He supported the protesters by saying. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported Saturday night, citing unnamed US officials, who said Trump had been given military options for attacking Iran but had not made a final decision.
The State Department also warned: “Do not play games with President Trump. When he says he will do something, he means it.”
Parliament rallies
Iranian state television broadcast the parliamentary session live. The hardline Qalibaf, who has run for president in the past, gave a speech applauding the police and Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, particularly the all-volunteer Basij, for “standing firm” during the protests.
“The Iranian people should know that we will deal with them in the harshest way and punish those who are arrested,” Qalibaf said. he said. He continued to directly threaten Israel, what he called the “occupied territories,” and the U.S. military, possibly with a preemptive strike.
“In case of an attack on Iran, both the occupied territories and all American military centers, bases and ships in the region will be our legitimate targets,” Kalibaf said. he said. “We do not see ourselves limited to reacting after the action and will act upon any objective signs of threat.”
It remains unclear how serious Iran is about launching an attack, especially after seeing its air defenses destroyed during a 12-day war with Israel in June. The decision to go to war belongs to Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The U.S. military is “positioned with forces spanning the full range of combat capability to defend our forces, our partners, our allies, and U.S. interests” in the Middle East, he said. While Iran targeted US forces at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in June, the US Navy’s Middle East-based 5th Fleet was stationed in the island kingdom of Bahrain.
Meanwhile, an Israeli official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists, said that Israel was “closely monitoring” the situation between the United States and Iran. The official added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio overnight on issues including Iran.
Protests in Tehran and Mashhad
Online videos sent from Iran, possibly using Starlink satellite transmitters, allegedly show demonstrators gathering in the Punak neighborhood of northern Tehran. There, authorities were seen blocking streets as protesters waved burning cellphones. Others crashed into metal as fireworks exploded.
Other footage allegedly showed demonstrators walking peacefully on the street and others honking their car horns in the street.
“The form of protests in the capital has largely taken the form of dispersed, short-lived and volatile gatherings, an approach that has taken shape in response to the heavy presence of security forces and increasing on-the-ground pressure,” the Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. he said. “At the same time, there have been reports of surveillance drones flying overhead and security forces moving around protest sites, indicating that monitoring and security control is ongoing.”
Footage allegedly appears to show protesters confronting security forces in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, about 725 kilometers (450 miles) northeast of Tehran. Burning rubble and garbage containers were seen on the street, blocking the road. Mashhad is home to the Imam Reza shrine, the holiest shrine in Shiite Islam, and the protests there are of great importance for the country’s theocracy.
Protests were also seen occurring in Kerman, 800 kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Tehran.
Iranian state television took a page from the demonstrators on Sunday morning, having its reporters show quiet areas on the streets of several cities with a date stamp on the screen. Tehran and Mashhad were not included. They also held pro-government demonstrations in Qom and Qazvin.
Senior security official Ali Larijani appeared on state television to accuse some demonstrators of “killing people or burning some people, very similar to what ISIS is doing,” referring to the Islamic State group by the acronym. While state television broadcast the funerals of the slain security force members, it reported that six more people were killed in Kermanshah. Also visible was a pickup truck full of bodies in body bags and later a morgue.
Even Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who tried to ease anger before demonstrations erupted in recent days, struck a harsh tone in an interview published Sunday.
“People have concerns, we have to sit down with them and address their concerns if that’s our mission,” Pezeshkian said. he said. “But the biggest task is not to let a group of rebels come in and destroy the entire society.”
More demonstrations are planned for Sunday
Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who called for protests on Thursday and Friday, asked demonstrators to take to the streets on Sunday in his last message. He called on protesters to carry Iran’s ancient lion and sun flag and other national symbols used under the Shah and “claim public spaces as your own.”
Pahlavi’s support to and from Israel has been the target of criticism in the past, especially after the 12-day war. Demonstrators shouted in support of the Shah at some protests, but it is unclear whether this was in support of Pahlavi or a desire to return to the times before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The demonstrations began on December 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which traded from $1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy was under pressure partly from international sanctions imposed over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and turned into calls to directly challenge the Iranian theocracy.
