Iran warns against US strikes as activists say protest death toll reaches 203

The US military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America strikes Iran over the ongoing protests roiling the country, as threatened by American president Donald Trump, the Islamic Republic’s parliament speaker has warned.

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.

Sunday’s protests crossed the two-week mark as violence surrounding the demonstrations has killed at least 203 people, activists said, with fears the death toll is far higher.

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 US-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 Mr Trump that he is willing to strike Iran to protect peaceful demonstrators.

Mr 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 US officials, said on Saturday night that Mr Trump had been given military options for a strike on Iran, but had not made a final decision.

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

Iranian state television broadcast the parliament session live.

Mr 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 branch, for having “stood firm” during the protests.

He went on to directly threaten Israel, “the occupied territory” as he referred to it, and the US military, possibly with a pre-emptive 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,” Mr Qalibaf said.

“We do not consider ourselves limited to reacting after the action and will act based on any objective signs of a threat.”

Politicians 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 US military has said that 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 US interests”.

Iran targeted US forces at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in June, while the US navy’s Middle East-based 5th Fleet is stationed in the island kingdom of Bahrain.

Meanwhile, Israel was “watching closely” the situation between the US and Iran, an Israeli official said.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US secretary of state Marco Rubio overnight on topics including Iran, the official said.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which relies on activists in Iran cross-checking information, offered the new death toll of 203 on Sunday – a large jump.

Of those killed, 162 were protesters and 41 were members of the security forces, it said.

The agency also acknowledged receiving claims of far more deaths that it was still assessing, as more than 3,280 others had been arrested.

The group has offered accurate tolls in previous rounds of unrest in the Islamic Republic.

The Iranian government has not offered any overall casualty figures for the demonstrations.

At the Vatican, Pope Leo mentioned Iran as a place “where ongoing tensions continue to claim many lives”.

“I hope and pray that dialogue and peace may be patiently nurtured in pursuit of the common good of the whole of society,” he said.

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 in 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 450 miles (725km) north-east of Tehran, footage purported to show protesters confronting security forces. Flaming debris and large rubbish bins could be seen in the street, blocking the road.

Protests also appeared to happen in Kerman, 500 miles (800km) south-east 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 so-called Islamic State group.

State TV aired funerals of dead 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 on Sunday.

“People have concerns, we should sit with them and if it is our duty, we should resolve their concerns,” Mr Pezeshkian said.

“But the higher duty is not to allow a group of rioters to come and destroy the entire society.”

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

Mr 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 is not clear whether that is support for Mr Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The demonstrations began on December 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at more than 1.4 million to one US dollar, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear programme.

The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.