Iran arrests protest leaders as crackdown intensifies amid threat of US intervention | Iran

Iranian authorities have arrested key members of the protest movement that has shaken the country for the past two weeks, the national police chief said, as Washington and Tehran threatened each other over possible US intervention in the Islamic Republic.

“Last night, significant arrests were made of the main elements of the riots, and they will be punished, God willing, after going through legal procedures,” police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan told state television on Sunday, without specifying the number of those arrested.

Iran’s chief prosecutor has previously said that those caught protesting, or even aiding protesters, could be accused of being “enemies of God” and that this could be punishable by death penalty.

The protest movement, which is in its second week in Iran, is the most serious unrest the country has experienced in years. Initially triggered by a sudden drop in the country’s currency, protesters soon demanded political reform and called for the overthrow of the government.

The Iranian regime has faced mass protest movements before, but analysts say the current unrest emerged after the government was weakened by the economic crisis and the summer war with Israel.

Authorities cut off internet access in the country on Thursday, causing a nearly insurmountable nationwide blackout. Human rights groups said Iranian authorities had expanded their crackdown on protesters by masking an internet shutdown and used lethal force and live ammunition to break up demonstrations.

According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, at least 116 people were killed and 2,600 people were arrested in the violence surrounding the demonstrations. “An examination of the causes of death shows that most victims were killed predominantly at close range with live ammunition or pellet guns,” the human rights group said.

Donald Trump has threatened to intervene in Iran if authorities kill protesters, and he repeated that threat Saturday night.

The US president said on the Truth Social platform: “Iran is looking at FREEDOM perhaps like never before. USA is ready to help!!!” he said. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported that US officials said Trump had been presented with military options for attacking Iran but had not yet decided on a course of action.

US senators echoed Trump’s call and Sen Lindsey Graham said on social media that the Iranians’ “long nightmare will soon be over”.

While Israeli officials said they were on high alert about any US intervention in Iran, Israeli media reported that they remained silent on the issue to avoid allowing Iranian officials to portray the protest movement as foreign-backed.

US threats quickly sparked a reaction from Iranian officials; The speaker of parliament warned that the United States and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if the United States struck Iran.

Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said, “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.”

Previously, when the US struck Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites in June, Iran also attacked a US military base in Qatar. The strike was seen as mostly symbolic because it was telegraphed and did not result in any deaths among U.S. military personnel.

Despite the crackdown, protests continued through the night on Saturday and more were expected on Sunday. Videos showed thousands of protesters banging pots and chanting protest slogans in northern Tehran. Protesters in Mashhad, the birthplace of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, were captured on video confronting police, setting up barricades and lighting fires.

Human rights groups said proper and comprehensive documentation was nearly impossible due to a communications blackout in the country, but reports of rising death rates among protesters were increasing. Iranian Center for Human Rights in question It was stated on Sunday that there had been credible reports from witnesses that hundreds of protesters had been killed in recent days.

Messages and videos occasionally spread from Iran, mostly carried by activists with Starlink satellite internet services.

A protester in the central Iranian city of Sari said security forces had placed the city under full martial law, according to messages transmitted through the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation.

“Many security forces armed with military weapons have set up checkpoints. Every car is stopped, even if there are only two people inside. They tell everyone that anyone outside will be shot,” the protesters said.

An Iranian activist abroad told the Guardian that their cousins ​​were able to call them via Starlink on Saturday night in a panic. He was fleeing a protest in Tehran’s Andarzgoo district after authorities began using “military weapons” against unarmed protesters and said security forces opened fire on men, women and children at close range.

In videos passed to the Guardian, large crowds can be seen streaming through the streets, surrounded by what appears to be tear gas. In the second video, the protester is seen repeating the word “shameless” and running away while gunshots can be heard in the background.

A. video Images verified by human rights group Hengaw show multiple bodies of what the group said were protesters killed by authorities in a warehouse in Tehran’s Kahrizak district. The warehouse is a facility adjacent to the morgue and is being used as an overflow facility because the morgue is overcrowded, the organization said. Iranian state media blamed the protesters for the death.

Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian, who had previously offered to engage in dialogue with protesters, appeared to adopt a tougher stance on Sunday. “People have concerns, we need to sit down with them and address their concerns if that’s our mission,” Pezeshkian said. “But the most important task is not to allow a group of rebels to come and destroy the entire society.”

The Iranian government has become increasingly concerned about a possible attack from the United States or Israel, even as it faces protests at home.