While Iran returned to calm after a wave of protests that caused bloodshed, a senior cleric called on Friday to impose the death penalty on jailed protesters and directly threatened US President Donald Trump – evidence of angry authorities in the Islamic Republic.
Trump, however, hit back, thanking Iran’s leaders for not killing hundreds of detained protesters, a sign that he may back down from the military strike. The killing of people, and the peaceful killing of protesters, are two red lines that Trump has set for taking action against Iran.
The heavy crackdown that left several thousand people dead appears to have succeeded in preventing protests that began on December 28 over Iran’s weak economy and turned into protests challenging the country’s theocracy.
There have been no signs of protests for days in Tehran, where shopping and street life have returned to normal, despite a week-long internet blackout. Authorities have not reported unrest in other parts of the country.
“Iran has canceled the execution of over 800 people,” Trump told reporters in Washington, adding that “I have a lot of respect for the fact that they have canceled.”
Trump did not specify who he spoke to in Iran to confirm the status of any planned killings.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency on Friday put the death toll at 3,090. The number, which exceeds that of any other cycle of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the turmoil surrounding the 1979 revolution, continues to rise.
The agency has been accurate throughout the years of protests, relying on a network of activists inside Iran to verify all reported deaths.
AP could not independently verify the toll. The Iranian government did not provide figures for casualties.
A fiery sermon by a hardline preacher
In contrast, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami’s sermon on Iranian state radio evoked chants from those gathered for prayer, including: “The armed hypocrites must be killed!”
Get the latest country news
For news that affects Canada and the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you as they happen.
Khatami, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts and Guardian Council long known for his hard-line views, described the protesters as “suppliers” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “Trump’s soldiers.” He said Netanyahu and Trump should wait for “severe retaliation against the system.”
“Americans and Zionists should not expect peace,” said the cleric.
FILE – Senior Iranian cleric Ahmad Khatami delivers his sermon during the Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran, Iran, on Friday, Jan. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File).
EN
His fiery speech came as allies of Iran and the United States sought to ease tensions. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on Friday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Israel’s Netanyahu, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
In the past, Russia has been very quiet about the protests. Moscow has watched several key allies suffer as its resources and focus are consumed by its four-year war with Ukraine, including the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2024, last year’s US and Israeli invasion of Iran and the US impeachment of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro this month.
Exiled Iranian royalist calls for war to continue
Days after Trump promised that “help is on the way” for protesters, protests and hopes of imminent US retaliation appeared to have subsided. One diplomat told the Associated Press that senior officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have expressed concerns with Trump that a US military intervention would destabilize the global economy and destabilize an already volatile region.
Iran’s exiled Crown Prince, Reza Pahlavi, has called on the US to make good on its promise to intervene. Pahlavi, whose father was overthrown by Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, said he still believes the president’s promise of help.
“I believe that the president is a man of his word,” Pahlavi told reporters in Washington. He added that “regardless of whether action is taken or not, we as Iranians have no choice but to continue the war.”
“I will return to Iran,” he vowed. Hours later, he urged the protesters to take to the streets again from Saturday to Monday.
Despite the support of diehard monarchists in the diaspora, Pahlavi has struggled to find broad appeal within Iran. But that didn’t stop him from presenting himself as Iran’s revolutionary leader should the regime fall.
Iranian authorities are counting the damage of the protest
Khatami, a hardline cleric, also gave the first estimates of damage from the protests, saying 350 mosques, 126 prayer halls and 20 other holy places were damaged. Another 80 homes of Friday prayer leaders – a key position in Iran’s democracy – were also damaged, possibly underscoring the anger protesters feel about the government’s signs.
He said 400 hospitals, 106 ambulances, 71 fire department vehicles, and 50 other emergency vehicles were also damaged.
Although the protests appear to have been contained within Iran, thousands of exiled Iranians and their supporters took to the streets in cities across Europe to voice their anger at the Islamic Republic’s government.
Amid the ongoing internet shutdown, some Iranians are crossing borders to communicate with the outside world. At the border in Turkey’s eastern province of Van, a number of Iranians who crossed on Friday said they were traveling to get around the cutoff.
“I will return to Iran after opening the Internet,” said the traveler who gave his first name, Mehdi, for security reasons.
Some who cross the border are some Turkish citizens fleeing unrest in Iran.
Mehmet Önder, 47, was in Tehran for his textile business when the protests broke out. He said he slept on the floor of his hotel until it was closed for security reasons, then stayed with one of his clients until he was able to return to Turkey.
Although he did not enter the streets, Önder said he heard a loud gunshot.
“I understand guns, because I worked in the military in southeast Turkey,” he said. “The guns they were shooting were not just weapons.
In a sign that the conflict could spill over borders, a Kurdish separatist group in Iraq said it had attacked Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in recent days in retaliation for Tehran’s crackdown on protests.
A representative of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, or PAK, said its members are “participating in the protests with financial support and working with weapons to protect the protesters when necessary.” The organization said the attack was launched by members of its military unit based inside Iran.
Amiri reported from New York. Associated Press reporters Will Weissert and Darlene Superville in Washington and Serra Yedikardes in Kapikoy Border Crossing, Turkey, contributed.
