Iran’s top diplomat issues further threat to US after crackdown on protests

Iran’s foreign minister issued the most direct threat yet on Wednesday against the United States after Tehran’s bloody crackdown on protesters, warning the Islamic Republic will be “firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack”.

The comments by Abbas Araghchi, who saw his invitation to the World Economic Forum in Davos rescinded over the killings, come as a US aircraft carrier group moves westward toward the Middle East from Asia.

US fighter jets and other equipment appear to be moving in the Middle East after a major US military deployment in the Caribbean saw troops seize Venezuela’s former leader Nicolas Maduro.

Later on Wednesday, Iranian state TV issued the first official death toll from recent protests, saying 3,117 people were killed.

State television carried a statement by the Martyrs Foundation providing the toll and saying 2,427 of the dead in the demonstrations that began on December 28 were civilians and security forces. It did not elaborate on the rest.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said the death toll from the protests had reached at least 4,560 people.

Meanwhile, an Iranian Kurdish separatist group in Iraq claimed Iran targeted one of its bases in a drone and missile attack that killed at least one fighter.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge the attack, which would be the first foreign operation Tehran has launched since the protests started in late December.

Mr Araghchi made the threat in an opinion article published by The Wall Street Journal. In it, the foreign minister contended “the violent phase of the unrest lasted less than 72 hours” and sought again to blame armed demonstrators for the violence.

Videos that made it out of Iran despite an internet shutdown appear to show security forces repeatedly using live fire to target apparently unarmed protesters, something unaddressed by Mr Araghchi.

“Unlike the restraint Iran showed in June 2025, our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack,” Mr Araghchi wrote, referring to the 12-day war launched by Israel on Iran in June.

“This isn’t a threat, but a reality I feel I need to convey explicitly, because as a diplomat and a veteran, I abhor war.”

He added: “An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House.

“It will certainly engulf the wider region and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe.”

Mr Araghchi’s comments likely refer to Iran’s short and medium-range missiles. The Islamic Republic relied on ballistic missiles to target Israel in the war and left its stockpile of the shorter-range missiles unused, something that could be fired to target US bases and interests in the Persian Gulf.

Already there have been some restrictions on US diplomats travelling to bases in Kuwait and Qatar.

Middle East nations, particularly diplomats from Gulf Arab countries, had lobbied US President Donald Trump not to attack after he threatened to act in response to the killing of demonstrators. Last week, Iran shut its airspace, likely in anticipation of a strike.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been in the South China Sea in recent days, had passed through the Strait of Malacca, a key waterway connecting the sea and Indian Ocean, by Tuesday, ship-tracking data showed.

A US Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aircraft carrier and three accompanying destroyers were heading west.

While naval and other defence officials stopped short of saying the carrier strike group was headed to the Middle East, its current heading and location in the Indian Ocean means it is only days away from moving into the region.

Meanwhile, US military images released in recent days showed F-15E Strike Eagles arriving in the Mideast and forces in the region moving a HIMARS missile system, the type used with great success by Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in the country in 2022.

The National Army of Kurdistan, the armed wing of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, or PAK, claimed Iran launched an attack against one of its bases near Irbil, some 320km (200 miles) north of Baghdad. It said one fighter had been killed, and released mobile phone footage of a fire in the pre-dawn darkness.

Iranian state television, which has confirmed attacks on the group in the past, did not acknowledge the assault.

Nearly 26,500 people have been arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Comments from officials have led to fears of some of those detained being put to death in Iran.

That and the killing of peaceful protesters have been two red lines laid down by Mr Trump in the tensions.