Iran protests: Tehran warns it will hit US bases if Trump steps in – National
The United States is withdrawing some personnel from bases in the Middle East, a US official said on Wednesday, after an Iranian official said Tehran had warned its neighbors that they would hit US bases if Washington struck.
As Iran’s leadership struggles to end the worst unrest the Islamic Republic has ever seen, Tehran is seeking to fend off US President Donald Trump’s threats to intervene on behalf of anti-government protesters.
An American official, who did not want to be named, said the United States is withdrawing some personnel from key bases in the region as a precaution given regional tensions.
Two European officials say US military intervention appears likely, while another says it could happen in the next 24 hours. The Israeli official also said that it appears that Trump has decided to intervene, although the extent and timing have not been specified.
Qatar said the downing of its Al Udeid airbase, the main US base in the region, was “due to regional tensions.”
The three diplomats said some staff had been told to leave the facility, although there were no signs that large numbers of troops had been evacuated from the football stadium and shopping mall as was the case in the hours before Iran’s missile strike last year.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in support of protesters in Iran, where thousands of people have reportedly been killed during protests against clerical rule.
Iran and its Western adversaries have both described the unrest, which began two weeks ago as protests against dire economic conditions and has escalated rapidly in recent days, as the most violent since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that installed Iran’s clerical system.
An Iranian official said more than 2,000 people had died. The rights group put the number at more than 2,600.
Iran had “never faced this kind of destruction,” Army Chief Abdolrahim Mousavi said on Wednesday, blaming foreign enemies. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot described “the most violent repression in Iran’s modern history.”
Iranian authorities have accused the United States and Israel of inciting the unrest, which is being perpetrated by what it calls armed terrorists.
IRAN ASKS REGIONAL COUNTRIES TO PREVENT US ATTACKS
Trump has openly threatened to intervene in Iran for days, without giving details. In an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, he vowed “strong action” if Iran kills protesters. He also urged Iranians to continue protesting and occupying institutions, saying “help is on the way.”
A senior Iranian official, speaking on the issue of disclosure, said that Tehran asked America’s allies in the region to prevent Washington from attacking Iran.
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“Tehran has told countries in the region, from Saudi Arabia and the UAE to Turkey, that US bases in those countries will be attacked” if the US targets Iran, the official said.
Direct communication between Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has been suspended, the official said.
The United States has forces throughout the region including the headquarters of its Central Command in Al Udeid in Qatar and the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
THE GOVERNMENT DOESN’T APPEAR TO BE IN THE BEGINNING, SAYS AN OFFICIAL FROM THE SHONALAGA
The flow of information from inside Iran has been disrupted by internet blackouts.
The US-based human rights group HRANA said it had so far confirmed the deaths of 2,403 protesters and 147 people working with the government, dwarfing previous waves of protests suppressed by authorities in 2022 and 2009.
The government’s reputation was badly damaged last year by Israel’s 12-day bombing campaign in June – coordinated by the US – which followed Iran’s regional retreat in Lebanon and Syria. European countries begin the reimposition of UN sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program, which worsens the economic situation.
Such unrest has caught the authorities at a critical juncture, but it does not appear that the government will fall soon, and the security services are still in control, one Western official said.
The authorities wanted to release pictures showing that they are maintaining public support. An Iranian television channel broadcasts images of mass funerals of people killed in the unrest in Tehran, Isfahan and Bushehr and other cities. People raised flags and portraits of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and held up signs with anti-violence slogans.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, an elected official whose power is less than Khamenei’s, told a cabinet meeting that as long as the government is supported by the majority of the people, “all the efforts of the enemies against the country will be in vain.”
State media reported that the head of Iran’s top security service, Ali Larijani, spoke with Qatar’s foreign minister, while Araqchi spoke with his Emirati and Turkish counterparts. Araqchi told UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed that “there is calm.”
Visiting the Tehran prison where the arrested protesters are being held, Iran’s Chief Justice said that the speed of judging and punishing those who “behead or burn people” is important to ensure that these incidents do not happen again.
IHRANA reported that 18,137 people have been arrested so far.
Hengaw, an Iranian Kurdish rights group, reported that a 26-year-old man, Erfan Soltani, who was arrested in connection with protests in the city of Karaj, will be executed on Wednesday. The group said on Wednesday that it could not confirm whether a sentence had been received.
(Reporting by Elwely Elwelly and Jana Choukeir in Dubai, Bassam Masoud in Doha, John Irish in Paris, Lili Bayer in Brussels, Bo Erickson in Detroit, Susan Heavey, Joey Roulette and Doina Chiacu in Washington, Michelle Nichols in the United Nations, Bhargav Acharya in Toronto Reporting by Peter Kendra Writing by Tom Kendra Writing by Tom Perry Hudson)
