Iranian official warns against U.S. strikes as activists say protest death toll reaches 203

Iran’s parliament speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America strikes the Islamic Republic over the ongoing protests roiling the country, as threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf made the threat after nationwide protests challenging Iran’s theocracy saw protesters flood the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city into Sunday morning, crossing the two-week mark as violence surrounding the demonstrations has killed at least 203 people, with fears the death toll is far higher, activists said.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. But the death toll in the protests has grown, while 2,600 others have been detained, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

Those abroad fear the information blackout will embolden hardliners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown, despite warnings from Trump he’s willing to strike Iran to protect peaceful demonstrators.

Trump offered support for the protesters, saying on social media that “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!” The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous U.S. officials, said on Saturday night that Trump had been given military options for a strike on Iran, but hadn’t made a final decision.

The State Department separately warned: “Do not play games with President Trump. When he says he’ll do something, he means it.”

Parliament rallies

Iranian state television broadcast the parliament session live. Qalibaf, a hardliner who has run for the presidency in the past, gave a speech applauding police and Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, particularly its all-volunteer Basij, for having “stood firm” during the protests.

He went on to directly threaten Israel — “the occupied territory,” as he referred to it — and the U.S. military, possibly with a preemptive strike.

“In the event of an attack on Iran, both the occupied territory and all American military centres, bases and ships in the region will be our legitimate targets,” Qalibaf said. “We do not consider ourselves limited to reacting after the action and will act based on any objective signs of a threat.”

Lawmakers rushed the dais in the Iranian parliament, shouting: “Death to America!”

It remains unclear just how serious Iran is about launching a strike, particularly after seeing its air defences destroyed during the 12-day war in June with Israel. Any decision to go to war would rest with Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The U.S. military has said in the Middle East it is “postured with forces that span the full range of combat capability to defend our forces, our partners and allies and U.S. interests.” Iran targeted U.S. forces at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar back in June, while the U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet is stationed in the island kingdom of Bahrain.

Israel, meanwhile, is “watching closely” the situation between the U.S. and Iran, said an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to not being authorized to speak to journalists. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio overnight on topics including Iran, the official added.

Protests in Tehran and Mashhad

Online videos sent out of Iran, likely using Starlink satellite transmitters, purportedly showed demonstrators gathering in northern Tehran’s Punak neighbourhood. There, it appeared authorities shut off streets, with protesters waving their lit mobile phones. Others banged metal while fireworks went off.

Other footage purportedly showed demonstrators peacefully marching down a street and others honking their car horns on the street.

“The pattern of protests in the capital has largely taken the form of scattered, short-lived, and fluid gatherings, an approach shaped in response to the heavy presence of security forces and increased field pressure,” the Human Rights Activists News Agency said.

“Reports were received of surveillance drones flying overhead and movements by security forces around protest locations, indicating ongoing monitoring and security control.”

In Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city some 725 kilometres northeast of Tehran, footage purported to show protesters confronting security forces. Flaming debris and dumpsters could be seen in the street, blocking the road. Mashhad is home to the Imam Reza shrine, the holiest in Shiite Islam.

Protests also appeared to happen in Kerman, 800 kilometres southeast of Tehran.

Iranian state television on Sunday morning had their correspondents appear on the streets in several cities to show calm areas with a date stamp shown on screen. Tehran and Mashhad were not included. They also showed pro-government demonstrations in Qom and Qazvin.

Ali Larijani, a top security official, went on state TV to accuse some demonstrators of “killing people or burning some people, which is very similar to what ISIS does,” referring to the Islamic State group by an acronym. State TV aired funerals of slain security force members while reporting another six had been killed in Kermanshah. It also showed a pickup truck full of bodies in body bags and later a morgue.

Even Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who had been trying to ease anger before the demonstrations exploded in recent days, offered a hardening tone in an interview aired Sunday.

“People have concerns, we should sit with them and if it is our duty, we should resolve their concerns,” Pezeshkian said. “But the higher duty is not to allow a group of rioters to come and destroy the entire society.”

More demonstrations planned Sunday

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi asked in his latest message for demonstrators to take to the streets Sunday.

Pahlavi’s support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past, particularly after the 12-day war. Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some protests, but it isn’t clear whether that’s support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.