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Tag: Iran

  • Iranians able to make some calls abroad while internet access is still out after protests

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    Mobile phones in Iran were able to call abroad Tuesday after a crackdown on nationwide protests in which the internet and international calls were cut.Several people in Tehran were able to call The Associated Press and speak to a journalist there. The AP bureau in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was unable to call those numbers back.Video above: Donald Trump says Iran wants to negotiate with the U.S. after his threat to strike the countryIranians said text messaging appeared to remain down, and witnesses said the internet remained cut off from the outside world.Iran cut off the internet and calls on Thursday as protests intensified.U.S. President Donald Trump has said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its crackdown on protesters that activists said had killed at least 646 people.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to the Qatar-funded satellite news network Al Jazeera in an interview aired Monday night, said he continued to communicate with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff.The communication “continued before and after the protests and are still ongoing,” Araghchi said. However, “Washington’s proposed ideas and threats against our country are incompatible.”White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Iran’s public rhetoric diverges from the private messaging the administration has received from Tehran in recent days.Video below: Scenes from the Los Angeles protest in support of the Iranian people“I think the president has an interest in exploring those messages,” Leavitt said. “However, with that said, the president has shown he’s unafraid to use military options if and when he deems necessary, and nobody knows that better than Iran.”Meanwhile, pro-government demonstrators flooded the streets Monday in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, which appeared to number in the tens of thousands, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”Others cried out, “Death to the enemies of God!” Iran’s attorney general has warned that anyone taking part in protests will be considered an “enemy of God,” a death-penalty charge.

    DUBAI, Dubai —

    Mobile phones in Iran were able to call abroad Tuesday after a crackdown on nationwide protests in which the internet and international calls were cut.

    Several people in Tehran were able to call The Associated Press and speak to a journalist there. The AP bureau in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was unable to call those numbers back.

    Video above: Donald Trump says Iran wants to negotiate with the U.S. after his threat to strike the country

    Iranians said text messaging appeared to remain down, and witnesses said the internet remained cut off from the outside world.

    Iran cut off the internet and calls on Thursday as protests intensified.

    U.S. President Donald Trump has said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its crackdown on protesters that activists said had killed at least 646 people.

    Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to the Qatar-funded satellite news network Al Jazeera in an interview aired Monday night, said he continued to communicate with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff.

    The communication “continued before and after the protests and are still ongoing,” Araghchi said. However, “Washington’s proposed ideas and threats against our country are incompatible.”

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Iran’s public rhetoric diverges from the private messaging the administration has received from Tehran in recent days.

    Video below: Scenes from the Los Angeles protest in support of the Iranian people

    “I think the president has an interest in exploring those messages,” Leavitt said. “However, with that said, the president has shown he’s unafraid to use military options if and when he deems necessary, and nobody knows that better than Iran.”

    Meanwhile, pro-government demonstrators flooded the streets Monday in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, which appeared to number in the tens of thousands, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

    Others cried out, “Death to the enemies of God!” Iran’s attorney general has warned that anyone taking part in protests will be considered an “enemy of God,” a death-penalty charge.

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  • 1/12: CBS Evening News

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    Lawmakers warn Fed’s independence at stake amid Powell investigation; Minnesota suing Homeland Security over ICE operations.

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  • 1/12: The Takeout with Major Garrett

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    Details on the Justice Department investigation into Jerome Powell; Trump briefed on military options for Iran as protests continue, sources say.

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  • Trump slaps 25% tariffs on any countries that do business with Iran

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    President Trump said Monday he’s imposing 25% tariffs on goods from all countries that do business with Iran — a sweeping measure as the Trump administration heaps pressure on the Iranian government amid nationwide anti-regime protests.

    Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social that the new tariffs will apply to “any and all business being done with the United States of America.” He said the tariffs would take effect immediately.

    It’s not clear which countries will face the new tariffs. But Iran does billions of dollars’ worth of business with one of the U.S.’s largest trading partners — China — and with the United Arab Emirates, an American ally in the Gulf region. 

    As of 2022, the world’s largest buyer of Iranian goods was China, which imported some $22.4 billion in goods from Iran, according to World Bank figures. China secretly imports Iranian oil despite tight U.S. sanctions designed to choke Iran’s petroleum industry, a CBS News investigation revealed last year. 

    China is also the U.S.’s third-largest trading partner, with Americans buying $438.9 billion worth of Chinese goods in 2024, according to the Census Bureau.

    Meanwhile, Iran imported around $18 billion in goods from the United Arab Emirates in 2022. The country is one of the U.S.’s key security partners in the area, with thousands of U.S. forces stationed there.

    Very little trade takes place between Iran and the U.S., due to years of intense sanctions levied on Iran due to the country’s nuclear program. But the sanctions on countries that do business with Iran represent a new effort to it from the global economy. 

    The new tariffs come as Iran is swept by its largest wave of protests in years, fueled in part by the country’s spiraling economy. More than 500 people have been reported dead in the protests, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. 

    Mr. Trump has repeatedly pledged to intervene if Iran’s regime starts cracking down by killing protesters, and he has been briefed on options for military strikes in Iran, a senior U.S. official told CBS News.

    “The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” the president told reporters Sunday evening. “We’ll make a determination.”

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  • Trump announces potential meeting with Iran amid ongoing protests

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    President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that Iranian leaders have reached out to negotiate as protests challenging Iran’s theocracy continue.On Sunday, Trump told reporters that a meeting with Iran is being arranged after the country called to negotiate. “We may meet with them. I mean, a meeting is being set up. But we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate,” Trump said.Iran’s foreign minister claimed Monday the situation is now under total control following a crackdown on nationwide protests. He also alleged that the protests “turned violent and bloody to give an excuse” for Trump to intervene, though he provided no evidence for this claim.At least two major outlets reported that Trump has been presented with military options for a strike on Iran but has not made a final decision. Iran’s parliament speaker stated that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America launches a strike.The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reports that at least 572 people have been killed in Iran, including at least 496 protesters.Around the world, people have been rallying in support of protests in Iran. In Los Angeles, a driver of a U-Haul truck sped through an anti-Iran demonstration on Sunday. Police say one person was hit by the truck, but nobody was seriously injured. The driver of the truck has not been identified, but officials said they were being detained “pending further investigation.”Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:

    WASHINGTON —

    President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that Iranian leaders have reached out to negotiate as protests challenging Iran’s theocracy continue.

    On Sunday, Trump told reporters that a meeting with Iran is being arranged after the country called to negotiate.

    “We may meet with them. I mean, a meeting is being set up. But we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate,” Trump said.

    Iran’s foreign minister claimed Monday the situation is now under total control following a crackdown on nationwide protests. He also alleged that the protests “turned violent and bloody to give an excuse” for Trump to intervene, though he provided no evidence for this claim.

    At least two major outlets reported that Trump has been presented with military options for a strike on Iran but has not made a final decision. Iran’s parliament speaker stated that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America launches a strike.

    The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reports that at least 572 people have been killed in Iran, including at least 496 protesters.

    Around the world, people have been rallying in support of protests in Iran.

    In Los Angeles, a driver of a U-Haul truck sped through an anti-Iran demonstration on Sunday. Police say one person was hit by the truck, but nobody was seriously injured.

    The driver of the truck has not been identified, but officials said they were being detained “pending further investigation.”

    Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:


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  • A breakable regime

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    Iran’s death toll: Hundreds of protesters have been killed in Iran, as the government tries to crack down on what look like some of the country’s largest protests since 1979.

    “The Center for Human Rights in Iran, based in New York, said it had received eyewitness accounts and credible reports that hundreds of protesters have been killed since the government shut down access to the internet Thursday night,” reports The Washington Post. “The Human Rights Activists News Agency, also based in the United States, said 490 protesters have been killed since the protests began.” The regime has attempted internet and cell service blackouts to try to suppress the spread of information, but the West has still managed to see videos of full body bags spread out, on hospital grounds, substantiating reports of a significant (yet still unknown) death toll.

    The protests started over economic grievances, but they have snowballed into more generalized anger with the repressive regime. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has threatened to insert the U.S. into the conflict. “Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf warned Sunday against such strikes,” reports the Post. “If the country were attacked, he said, it could target the United States, Israel and international shipping lanes.”

    “Iran’s 12-day war with Israel and the U.S. last June broke the regime’s carefully nurtured image of invincibility, many ordinary Iranians say,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “Israeli strikes across Iran destroyed much of its military leadership, and the follow-on U.S. bombing campaign struck a heavy blow against Iran’s nuclear program. It was a humiliation for a regime that had invested so much of the country’s national wealth into a proxy network that was designed to deter exactly this sort of assault on the homeland.”

    A regime that once looked unbreakable has cracks forming everywhere.

    Iran is not merely a theocracy, Tahmineh Dehbozorgi points outs on X: “It is a centrally controlled, state-dominated economy where markets are strangled, private enterprise is criminalized or co-opted, and economic survival depends on proximity to political power. Decades of price controls, subsidies, nationalization, and bureaucratic micromanagement have obliterated the middle class and entrenched corruption as the only functional system. The result is not equality or justice. It is poverty, stagnation, and dependence on government’s dark void of empty promises.”

    Wealth tax barely understood by normies: “California helped make them among the richest people in the world. Now they’re fleeing because California wants a little something back,” writes Lorraine Ali in an unintentionally hilarious Los Angeles Times article about a proposed “billionaire tax.”

    “The proposed California Billionaire Tax Act has plutocrats saying they are considering deserting the Golden State for fear they’ll have to pay a one-time, 5% tax, on top of the other taxes they barely pay in comparison to the rest of us,” continues Ali. “Think of it as the Dust Bowl migration in reverse, with The Monied headed East to grow their fortunes.” Those who’ve already left the state “include In-n-Out Burger owner and heiress Lynsi Snyder, PayPal co-founder and conservative donor Peter Thiel, Venture Capitalist David Sacks, co-founder of Craft Ventures, and Google co-founder Larry Page, who recently purchased $173 million worth of waterfront property in Miami’s Coconut Grove. Thank goodness he landed on his feet in these tough times.”

    About that last one: Ali doesn’t seem to understand the mechanics of how the tax would be applied. But the affected people sure do.

    “Larry [Page] and Sergey [Brin] can’t stay in California since the wealth tax as written would confiscate 50% of their Alphabet shares,” writes Y Combinator CEO Gary Tan on X. “Each own ~3% of Alphabet’s stock, worth about $120 billion each at today’s ~$4 trillion market cap. But because their shares have 10x voting power, the…billionaire tax would treat them as owning 30% of Alphabet (3% × 10 = 30%). That means each founder’s taxable wealth would be $1.2 trillion. A 5% wealth tax on $1.2 trillion = $60 billion tax bill, each. That’s 50% of their actual Alphabet holdings—wiped out by a ‘5%’ tax.”

    Consider the way the law is written: “For any interests that confer voting or other direct control rights, the percentage of the business entity owned by the taxpayer shall be presumed to be not less than the taxpayer’s percentage of the overall voting or other direct control rights.” This is probably to ensure rich people can’t use complex share structures to make it seem like they have lower ownership (and thus a lower tax burden).

    This law is being pitches as a means of making up for the $100 billion state budget shortfall, including $19 billion in federal cuts to Medi-Cal, $7 billion to $9 billion in state cuts to the same program, and possible cuts to the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. And the line that keeps being repeated—that these billionaires couldn’t have done it without the state of California, or without being in their specific location—is kind of a strange one. Sure, Silicon Valley agglomeration effects are great, but it’s not like they were bilking the state in some way.

    “Billionaires have built their extraordinary fortunes with the help of California resources and were the largest beneficiaries of the federal legislation that contributed to the current state budget crisis,” write the drafters of the law. “It therefore is both necessary and equitable to ask those who have benefitted most from California’s resources to contribute proportionately to support health care, education, and nutrition in California through a one-time 5% tax on billionaire wealth.”

    Scenes from New York: “The group Palestinian Assembly for Liberation organized a rally outside Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills yeshiva in protest of an event promoting real estate investments in Jerusalem,” reports CBS. “Protesters gathered on the sidewalk behind barricades across the street from the yeshiva at the corner of 150th Street and 70th Road, some carrying Palestinian flags. In at least one video posted to social media, the demonstrators appear to be chanting, ‘We support Hamas here.’…’Showing support for terrorist organizations outside of the synagogue is a horrific act,’ said Scott Richman, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League New York and New Jersey.”

    QUICK HITS

    • “The U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia has opened a criminal investigation into Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, over the central bank’s renovation of its Washington headquarters and whether Mr. Powell lied to Congress about the scope of the project, according to officials briefed on the situation,” reports The New York Times.
    • “Venezuela’s current political moment is a paradox of tutelage: a partial rupture with authoritarian rule that has not translated into democratic control,” writes Juan Miguel Matheus in the Journal of Democracy. “The removal of Nicolás Maduro marks the end of a long and suffocating autocratic cycle centered on a single ruler. Yet, the way in which that rupture has occurred—through external intervention and in coordination with remnants of the old regime—has produced a political landscape that is at once post-Maduro and still undemocratic. Liberation has begun, but it remains partial, contested, and insufficient to restore Venezuelan self-government….Venezuela’s present moment does not fit the model of democratic transition made familiar by the third wave. It is neither a negotiated pact between authoritarian incumbents and democratic challengers, nor a clean electoral alternation, nor a revolutionary rupture. It is instead a unique conjuncture produced by the intersection of extreme autocratic entrenchment, external intervention, institutional collapse, and the displacement—rather than the empowerment—of democratic initiative. What Venezuela is experiencing is not a postliberation order, but a partial liberation. Maduro has been removed, but the regime has not been defeated.”
    • “I went sober to prioritize my health,” writes Dean Stattmann for GQ. “But then slowly but surely I realized the best parts of life were passing me by.” (This is why I’m long booze.)
    • “Nearly 16,000 nurses at three major hospitals in New York City are expected to strike amid a severe flu season, the last group of New York Nurses Association practitioners who have not settled their contracts,” reports Bloomberg. “A strike would come three years after a similar labor dispute ended in a historic contract. Operations at hospitals including Mount Sinai Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian in Manhattan as well as Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx are expected to be affected.”
    • Pivot to manufacturing isn’t going so well:

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  • U-Haul truck drives through crowd of anti-Iranian regime protesters in Los Angeles

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    Los Angeles police responded Sunday after somebody drove a U-Haul box truck down a street crowded with marchers demonstrating in support of the Iranian people, causing protesters to scramble out of the way and then run after the speeding vehicle to try to attack the driver.The U-Haul truck, with a window and side mirrors shattered, was stopped several blocks away and surrounded by police cars. ABC7 news helicopter footage showed officers keeping the crowd at bay as demonstrators swarmed the truck, throwing punches at the driver and thrusting flagpoles through the driver’s side window.Watch video from the scene aboveThe driver, a man who was not identified, was detained “pending further investigation,” police said in a statement Sunday evening.The police statement said one person was hit by the truck but nobody was seriously hurt. Two people were evaluated by paramedics and both declined treatment, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.A banner attached on the truck said ““No Shah. No Regime. USA: Don’t Repeat 1953. No Mullah,” an apparent reference to a U.S.-backed coup that year that toppled then Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.The August 1953 coup stemmed from U.S. fears over the Soviet Union increasingly wanting a piece of Iran as Communists agitated within the country. The ground had been laid partially by the British, who wanted to wrest back access to the Iranian oil industry, which had been nationalized earlier by Mossadegh.The coup toppled Mossadegh and cemented the power of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It also lit the fuse for the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which saw the fatally ill shah flee Iran and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini usher in the theocracy that still governs the country.A huge crowd of demonstrators, some waving the flag of Iran before the Islamic Revolution,, had gathered Sunday afternoon along Veteran Avenue in LA’s Westwood neighborhood to protest against the Iranian theocracy. Police eventually issued a dispersal order, and by 5 p.m. only about a hundred protesters were still in the area, ABC7 reported.Activists say a crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed more than 530 people. Protesters flooded the streets in Iran’s capital of Tehran and its second-largest city again Sunday.Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian community outside of Iran.

    LOS ANGELES —

    Los Angeles police responded Sunday after somebody drove a U-Haul box truck down a street crowded with marchers demonstrating in support of the Iranian people, causing protesters to scramble out of the way and then run after the speeding vehicle to try to attack the driver.

    The U-Haul truck, with a window and side mirrors shattered, was stopped several blocks away and surrounded by police cars. ABC7 news helicopter footage showed officers keeping the crowd at bay as demonstrators swarmed the truck, throwing punches at the driver and thrusting flagpoles through the driver’s side window.

    Watch video from the scene above

    The driver, a man who was not identified, was detained “pending further investigation,” police said in a statement Sunday evening.

    The police statement said one person was hit by the truck but nobody was seriously hurt. Two people were evaluated by paramedics and both declined treatment, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

    A banner attached on the truck said ““No Shah. No Regime. USA: Don’t Repeat 1953. No Mullah,” an apparent reference to a U.S.-backed coup that year that toppled then Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.

    The August 1953 coup stemmed from U.S. fears over the Soviet Union increasingly wanting a piece of Iran as Communists agitated within the country. The ground had been laid partially by the British, who wanted to wrest back access to the Iranian oil industry, which had been nationalized earlier by Mossadegh.

    The coup toppled Mossadegh and cemented the power of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It also lit the fuse for the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which saw the fatally ill shah flee Iran and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini usher in the theocracy that still governs the country.

    A huge crowd of demonstrators, some waving the flag of Iran before the Islamic Revolution,, had gathered Sunday afternoon along Veteran Avenue in LA’s Westwood neighborhood to protest against the Iranian theocracy. Police eventually issued a dispersal order, and by 5 p.m. only about a hundred protesters were still in the area, ABC7 reported.

    Activists say a crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed more than 530 people. Protesters flooded the streets in Iran’s capital of Tehran and its second-largest city again Sunday.

    Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian community outside of Iran.

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  • 1/11: CBS Weekend News

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    Protests in Iran intensify despite threat of death for dissidents; Suspect in custody after Mississippi’s oldest synagogue targeted in arson attack.

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  • Trump briefed on new military options for Iran strikes amid protests, sources say

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    President Trump has been briefed on new military options for a strike against Iran amid widespread protests and a government crackdown on communications for Iranians, a senior U.S. official tells CBS News. Willie James Inman has more.

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  • Protests in Iran intensifying despite threat of death for dissidents

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    Demonstrations in Iran are now entering their third week and the death toll is surging with hundreds killed, according to a human rights group. Leigh Kiniry reports.

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  • Is This Time Different in Iran? | RealClearPolitics

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    Is This Time Different in Iran?

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    Peter Theroux, Tablet Magazine

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  • The Bloody Lesson the Ayatollah Took from the Shah

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    On November 6, 1978, while riots raged throughout Tehran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, addressed the nation in a rhetoric of conciliation. “I have heard the voice of your revolution,” he said. The Shah promised to correct the regime’s mistakes, liberate political prisoners, call parliamentary elections, investigate the corruption in his midst, and ease the crackdown on dissent against a nationwide opposition.

    But, as had happened so often in the history of brittle regimes, the dictator’s gesture of conciliation was read as desperation. In a village outside Paris, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini consistently attacked the Shah with derision. The “despotic regime of the Shah” was weak, he had said earlier, and was “drawing its last breaths.” And now, despite the Shah’s speech in Tehran, there could be no compromise.

    Two months later, the Shah, suffering from cancer, fled Iran and commenced the indignity of travelling from one country to the next, looking for an acceptable place of exile. He died in July, 1980, in Cairo.

    The current leader of the Islamic regime, Khomeini’s successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is eighty-six. He is one of the longest-reigning dictators on the planet. He is keenly aware of the story of the decline and fall of the old regime. And now, with the Islamic Republic facing dramatic demonstrations in dozens of cities across Iran, Khamenei is faced with a dilemma not unlike the Shah’s. With the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other instruments of force as his bludgeon, Khamenei has chosen bloodshed over conciliation. The regime’s attempt to shut down the internet and other means of communication has dramatically slowed reporting, yet human-rights groups say that Iranian authorities have already killed as many as two hundred demonstrators.

    “Unfortunately, if the Ayatollah is taking any lesson from the Shah, it’s that the Shah was weak and caved,” Scott Anderson, the author of “King of Kings,” a history of the revolution published last year, told me. “Brutally speaking, if the Shah had been tougher and had instructed his soldiers to indiscriminately kill people in the streets, he might have been saved. The question now is will the average soldier on the street shed more and more blood. How far will they go?”

    The leaders of the regime, various experts told me, derived dark instruction not only from their historical enemy, the Shah, but from subsequent history. In the late nineteen-eighties, the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, tried to modernize his regime by democratizing the political system, ending censorship, easing the Cold War with the United States, and introducing market mechanisms into the economy. His conclusion was that “we cannot live this way any longer”; a regime guided by Communist ideology and confrontation had left the Soviet Union in a state of generalized poverty, isolation, and confrontation. And yet, although many conditions improved through Gorbachev’s liberal policies, he also risked the existence of a fragile system. Finally, he could not control the forces he had unleashed, and, by the end of 1991, the Soviet Union had collapsed and Gorbachev was forced from office.

    Khamenei came to power in 1989, at the peak of “Gorbymania.” The spectacle of the fall of the Soviet Union led him and the Iranian regime to grow more suspicious of the West and of any sign of internal reform. “I have now reached the conclusion that the United States has devised a comprehensive plan to subvert the system of the Islamic Republic,” Khamenei said in a speech to government officials, in July, 2000. “This plan is an imitation of the one that led to the collapse of the former Soviet Union. U.S. officials intend to carry out the same in Iran, and there are plentiful clues [evidencing this] in their selfish, often hasty remarks made during the past few years.”

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  • Trump briefed on new options for military strikes in Iran, source says

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    President Trump was briefed on new options for military strikes in Iran, a senior U.S. official confirmed Sunday.

    Mr. Trump appeared to lay out his red line for action on Friday when he warned that if the Iranian government began “killing people like they have in the past, we would get involved.”

    “We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts,” he said at the White House. “And that doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts.”

    On social media, Mr. Trump offered his support for the protesters, saying that “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”

    Mr. Trump’s warnings come as nationwide unrest challenging Iran’s theocracy crossed the two-week mark. At least 538 people have died in violence surrounding the demonstrations, U.S.-based activists said, with fears the death toll is far higher. More than 10,600 people have been arrested, the Human Rights Activists News Agency said.

    The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous U.S. officials, first reported Saturday night that Mr. Trump had been given military options but hadn’t made a final decision. The WSJ reports that Trump will receive further options on Tuesday.

    The U.S. has not moved any forces in preparation for potential military strikes. 

    America has many capabilities and options, and cyber attacks could be among them, according to a U.S. official who also confirmed that the Trump administration approves of Elon Musk’s decision to make Starlink terminals available in Iran. That satellite-based internet service could help protestors bypass government restrictions amid the ongoing communications blackout. Starlink did not respond to CBS inquiries.

    The U.S. already has heavy sanctions on Iran’s regime, and in recent weeks has added to them. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday that Mr. Trump has “moral support” for actions in Iran. He declined to answer a question about whether the U.S. would interdict vessels carrying Iranian oil for trading on the black market.

    “I think the people in Iran are rising up because they feel there’s a strong America that has their back,” Wright said.

    Iran’s theocratic rulers continue to claim that the protesters are agitators influenced by the U.S. and Israel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Saturday about the protests and other regional issues, according to US officials.

    Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker and a hardliner who has run for the presidency in the past, warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if the U.S. strikes the Islamic Republic.

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

    On Friday, Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, said on X: “Our enemies don’t know Iran. In the past, the US failed due to their flawed planning. Today too, their flawed scheming will cause them to fail.”

    There are currently 2,000 U.S. troops next door in Iraq, stationed on bases that have previously been targeted by Iranian-backed militias. There are also U.S. forces throughout the Mideast region, including significant hubs in Qatar, home of U.S. Central Command, and Bahrain, where the U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet is stationed.

    Back in June, Iran launched a missile strike on the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in retaliation for the U.S. airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities.

    Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who is on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, said on “Face the Nation” that U.S. military action in Iran now to help the protesters would be a “massive mistake.” 

    “It would have the effect of giving the Iranian regime the ability to say it’s the U.S. that’s screwing our country up,” Kaine said. “Right now, Iranians are blaming, appropriately, the regime for screwing up the country.” 

    Kaine called for maintaining the sanctions pressure, noting that it had been successful against the Assad regime in Syria. Last December, armed rebels previously aligned with terror groups finally ousted Assad from power after a 14 year civil war.

    “U.S. military action would bring back the painful history of the U.S. toppling the Iranian prime minister back in the 1950s and would give the regime the ability to blame their own failures on the United States,” he added.

    When asked on Sunday if shooting protesters would be the “red line” for Mr. Trump that would trigger U.S. action, a senior U.S. official declined to explicitly confirm it, saying “only Trump can determine what the red line is.”

    The White House and U.S. State Department have declined to answer questions about specific military options being considered.

    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 imposed in part to curb its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

    Caroline Linton and

    The Associated Press

    contributed to this report.

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  • Trump weighs options on Iran as protest crackdown reportedly kills more than 500

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    President Donald Trump has been weighing a range of options against Iran amid the country’s crackdown on protesters that human rights groups say has killed more than 500 people.

    According to three U.S. officials, Trump has said publicly that he may take action if Iranian leaders killed protesters challenging Iran’s theocracy, as demonstrations entered their second week despite an increasingly aggressive crackdown. No final decision has been made, the officials said.

    The president has been presented with preliminary plans, the officials said, ranging from possible strikes to other options that would not entail military action.

    The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said Sunday that at least 538 people have been killed. The Norway-based group Iran Human Rights also cited unverified reports that several hundred people may have been killed.

    An internet blackout in Iran has made it difficult for journalists and human rights groups to independently verify reports from inside the country.

    Iran warned Trump on Sunday that Israeli and U.S. military bases in the region could be considered “legitimate targets” if a strike goes ahead.

    “If the United States launches a military attack, both the occupied territory and U.S. military and maritime centers will be our legitimate targets,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Sunday in remarks aired on Iranian state television, referring to Israel as the occupied territory.

    “Within the framework of legitimate defense, we do not limit ourselves to reacting after an attack,” he added.

    Trump earlier this week threatened military intervention if Iran moves to crush the protests. Addressing its leaders on Friday, he said: “You better not start shooting, because we’ll start shooting, too.” He offered further support for the protesters on Saturday, saying in a post on Truth Social: “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”

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

    The Israeli military said Sunday that it is monitoring developments in Iran and will be able to “respond with power if need be.”

    The demonstrations, which were sparked by economic grievances two weeks ago as the currency crashed and inflation soared, have now morphed into one of the biggest challenges the Islamic Republic has faced in its 47-year history, as thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand the ouster of the ruling clergy.

    In an address on Iranian state TV on Sunday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the U.S. and Israel of seeking to sow chaos and disorder in Iran, urging people to distance themselves from “rioters and terrorists.”

    Gen. Ahmad-Reza Radan, the commander in chief of Iran’s police force, said on Sunday that an “enhanced” response to the protests was now in place, according to Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency. He said a number of arrests had taken place on Saturday.

    The Iranian government has not released data on how many protesters have been detained, but the Human Rights Activists News Agency reports at least 10,675 people have been arrested during the protests, which have spanned 574 locations in 185 cities around the country.

    Iran’s Prosecutor-General Mohammad Movahedi Azad said Saturday that protesters would be considered an “enemy of God,” a death-penalty charge in Iran, in remarks reported by Iranian media. The country’s chief justice said Sunday that there would be “no leniency” towards those involved in the unrest and that judges have been designated to deal with cases across the country, according to state media.

    Internet blackouts in Iran continued into Sunday, according to NetBlocks, an internet monitoring group. Amnesty International has called the blackouts an attempt by authorities “to hide the true extent of the grave human rights violations and crimes under international law they are carrying out to crush nationwide protests.”

    Security forces sent text messages to people suspected of attending “illegal gatherings,” Iranian state media said Saturday, warning them they have been identified as participants using location data and that covering their faces with masks won’t help avoid detection.

    The internet blackout has made it difficult for international media to gauge the extent of the protests, but footage verified by NBC News showed hundreds of anti-government protesters gathered at Kaj Square in Tehran, clapping and shouting the name of their country.

    Another verified video showed hundreds of protesters gathered in Tehran’s Ponak Square, chanting, playing music and waving their phone flashlights in the air. Other footage showed scores had also gathered in the city’s Heravi Square, singing and clapping their hands as they marched through the streets.

    It is unclear if the videos were taken on Friday or Saturday night. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard-aligned media claimed that Saturday was a “calm” night across the country, with security forces having “put the rioters back in their place.”

    Solidarity protests took place in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom as many Iranians living in Europe offered their support of their compatriots inside Iran.Michael Mohkam, a 78-year-old Iranian living in France, said he hoped for change so that expatriates could one day return home.

    “I’ve been living here for 48 years. But my soul and body are in my home country,” Mohkam said. “When I left Iran to come here to pursue my studies, I left a magnificent paradise.”

    Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s late shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, continued to encourage the protesters on Sunday after earlier calling for them to prepare to seize city centers across Iran.

    Pahlavi, who lives in the U.S. and has emerged as a figurehead for some of the protesters, touted Trump’s support in a post on X Sunday and promised to be with the protesters “soon.”

    Doha Madani and Reuters contributed.

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  • Iran rachets up warnings against protesters, threatens U.S. troops in region as unrest enters its second week

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    Dubai, United Arab Emirates — Nationwide unrest challenging Iran’s theocracy saw protesters flood the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city Saturday night and into Sunday morning, crossing the two-week mark as an outside monitoring group said at least 116 people had been killed.

    With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. But according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which relies on a network of contacts inside the country, the death toll from clashes between protests and Iran’s security forces has climbed steadily, and more than 2,600 others have been detained over the last two weeks.

    Faced with its most significant challenge in years, Iran’s theocratic rulers have issued increasingly stern threats to what it claims are agitators being influenced by the U.S. and Israel — and answered threats of a U.S. intervention by President Trump with corresponding threats of their own.

    Iran’s parliament speaker warned the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America strikes the Islamic Republic, as threatened by President Trump. Qalibaf made the threat as lawmakers rushed the dais in the Iranian parliament, shouting: “Death to America!”

    Those abroad fear the information blackout will embolden hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown, despite warnings from Mr. Trump that he’s willing to strike the Islamic Republic if demonstrators are killed.

    Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 9, 2026. 

    MAHSA/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty


    On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social that “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”

    “I’m sure that has really scared many Iranian officials and may have affected their actions in terms of how to confront the protestors, but at the same time, it has inspired many protesters to come out because they know that the leader of the world’s main superpower is supporting their cause,” Maziar Bahari, the editor of the IranWire news website told CBS News. 

    The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous U.S. officials, said on Saturday night that Mr. Trump had been given military options for a strike on Iran, but hadn’t made a final decision.

    Iran lawmaker says “signs of a threat” could trigger attacks on U.S. troops

    Iranian state television broadcast the Sunday parliament session live. Qalibaf, a hard-liner 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.

    “The people of Iran should know that we will deal with them in the most severe way and punish those who are arrested,” Qalibaf said.

    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 centers, 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.”

    It remains unclear just how serious Iran is about launching a strike, particularly after seeing its air defenses destroyed during the 12-day war in June with Israel, which also saw the U.S. carry out strikes against its nuclear facilities. 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 Mideast 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.

    Iran threatens protesters with death sentences

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

    Other video 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. “At the same time, reports were received of surveillance drones flying overhead and movements by security forces around protest locations, indicating ongoing monitoring and security control.”

    iran-protest-mashaad-jan10-2026.jpg

    An image from a video posted on social media on Jan. 10, 2026, shows large crowds of protesters gathered along the Vakil Abad highway in Iran’s northeast city of Mashhad, chanting slogans as fires burn.

    Reuters/Social media


    In Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, some 450 miles northeast of Tehran, video 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, making the protests there carry heavy significance for the country’s theocracy.

    Protests also appeared to happen in Kerman, 500 miles southeast of Tehran.

    Iranian state television on Sunday morning took a page from demonstrators, having their correspondents appear on 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.

    Khamenei has signaled a coming clampdown, despite U.S. warnings. Tehran escalated its threats Saturday, with Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, warning that anyone taking part in protests will be considered an “enemy of God,” a death-penalty charge. The statement carried by Iranian state television said even those who “helped rioters” would face the charge.

    Iran’s theocracy cut off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls on Thursday, though it allowed some state-owned and semiofficial media to publish. Qatar’s state-funded Al Jazeera news network reported live from Iran, but they appeared to be the only major foreign outlet able to work.

    Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who called for protests Thursday and Friday, asked in his latest message for demonstrators to take to the streets Saturday and Sunday. He urged protesters to carry Iran’s old lion-and-sun flag and other national symbols used during the time of the shah to “claim public spaces as your own.”

    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.

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  • Israel on High Alert for Possibility of US Intervention in Iran, Sources Say

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    Jan 11 (Reuters) – Israel is on high ‌alert ​for the possibility ‌of any U.S. intervention in Iran as authorities ​there confront the biggest anti-government protests in years, according to three ‍Israeli sources with knowledge ​of the matter.

    President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to ​intervene ⁠in recent days and warned Iran’s rulers against using force against demonstrators. On Saturday, Trump said the U.S. stands “ready to help”.

    The sources, who were present for Israeli security consultations over the ‌weekend, did not elaborate on what Israel’s high-alert footing meant ​in ‌practice. Israel and Iran ‍fought ⁠a 12-day war in June, in which the U.S. joined Israel in launching airstrikes.

    In a phone call on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the possibility of U.S. intervention in Iran, according to an Israeli ​source who was present for the conversation. A U.S. official confirmed the two men spoke but did not say what topics they discussed.

    Israel has not signalled a desire to intervene in Iran as protests grip the country, with tensions between the two arch-foes high over Israeli concerns about Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

    In an interview with the Economist published on Friday, Netanyahu said ​there would be horrible consequences for Iran if it were to attack Israel. Alluding to the protests, he said: “Everything else, I think we should see what is ​happening inside Iran.”

    (Reporting by Rami Ayyub and Maayan Lubell; Editing by William Mallard)

    Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Rubio and Netanyahu Spoke by Phone on Saturday, US Official Says

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    WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (Reuters) – ‌U.S. ​Secretary of State ‌Marco Rubio spoke over the phone ​with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, a ‍U.S. official said, without ​providing additional details.

    While the American official did ​not ⁠mention the topics discussed in the call, Axios reported earlier that the two of them spoke about Gaza, Syria and the protests in Iran.

    Iran, which had ‌a 12-day war with Israel last year and whose ​nuclear ‌facilities were bombed by ‍the ⁠U.S. in June, is seeing its biggest anti-government demonstrations in years.

    In Gaza, a fragile ceasefire has not progressed beyond its first phase since it began in October, with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of ​major breaches of the deal. The two sides remain far apart on the more difficult steps envisaged for the next phase. 

    Earlier this week, Israel and Syria agreed during U.S.-mediated talks in Paris to set up a communication mechanism to coordinate on security and commercial issues.

    Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January ​2025, Netanyahu has visited the United States five times to meet the Republican president while Trump visited Israel in October.

    (Reporting by Kanishka Singh ​in Washington; Editing by Andrea Ricci, Sergio Non and Kate Mayberry)

    Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.

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  • What Makes the Iranian Protests Different This Time

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    Previous protests were not as big there?

    No, not at all. And this is a huge blow to the regime because in Mashhad you see security forces in all corners of the city. Khamenei often gives speeches there laying out his plans for the next year. This is the last place that they would have imagined such a large-scale protest.

    The slogans are really important. In the last round of protests, in the previous round, the main slogan was “Woman, Life, Freedom.” It was coming from grassroots collectives of Kurdish women. Now we are hearing slogans about “death to the dictator,” which target the core of the regime. We have also never had such large-scale strikes. Strikes are something that had an important role in toppling the Pahlavi regime in 1979. And, in the previous round of protests, we saw that the Kurdish areas were very active in the strikes. Some activists were shouting that the rest of the country, including Tehran, should join their strikes, but it didn’t happen.

    This time, though, the unrest started in Ala’addin Bazaar—a well-known shopping center in Tehran, which primarily sells mobile phones and digital equipment—and it quickly spread to Tehran’s Grand Bazaar. The merchants in Ala’addin Bazaar are considered conservative, religiously speaking. They’ve never protested in the past. And this is a place for electronic equipment, mobile phones, computers—this is something about trading and being able to import and so forth. So it started in the heart of the capital, then it spread to other areas of Iran, and then seven major Kurdish parties basically came together and announced that they were joining the strike.

    You mentioned the Twelve-Day War with Israel. It was significant the degree to which Iran was humiliated by first Israel and then the United States, and the degree of military power that Israel seems to have displayed over Iran. I would imagine that just from a sheer nationalist perspective, anyone watching their own country get embarrassed like that would be outraged at the regime, too.

    I think we have to be very careful in addressing this question because I think there was a lot of misinterpretation in terms of how Iranians responded to the war. Iranians were obviously against the Israeli actions. The majority were enraged about this, but at the same time we have to be careful—when they’re enraged about an assault on Iranian soil, it’s not about defending the regime. This is about the population that is stuck between a murderous criminal mafia that has taken over the country and, on the other hand, Israel and the United States, who follow their own interests. So they’re not defending the regime by condemning Israel.

    Humiliation is something that we have to take into account. Many military commanders were killed. I think one of the things that people realized is that this regime is not even able to protect its own high-ranking officials. If they cannot protect their own officials and military bases, how are they going to protect the nation? How are they going to protect their own people? The leader of the country was hiding for twelve days. People were essentially left on their own to figure out how to defend themselves. People could not leave certain cities. They were blocked inside their cities without having any shelter to run into.

    So I think the war led to this complete lack of trust in the ability of the government to protect the nation, in the case of an invasion, under a regime that has been basically attacking Israel, attacking America, and isolating the whole nation in the name of national integrity. I’ve been hearing repeatedly, especially after the U.S. strikes and during the war, that people believe the nuclear program has caused more economic devastation and minor international isolation than any success it might have brought. The immense costs associated with the program have only worsened the economic situation, leading to a more stifling environment. Unlike the regime, the people do not view this as a national interest and are instead in favor of negotiating a deal with the U.S. to lift the sanctions. There have been negotiations and discussions within the government regarding this issue, but Khamenei does not seem willing to back down.

    What about Iran’s regional standing, which has weakened in the past couple of years after the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad fell and was replaced by a Sunni government, and after Hezbollah, the Iranian ally in Lebanon, was weakened by Israel? Is there some sense among the population that Iran’s regional position is weaker? Have you seen that fact manifesting itself in the way people within Iran are talking about politics and protest?

    I think it is part of that humiliation that we’ve been discussing, and I think a major aspect of it was all these empty gestures and speeches by Khamenei. He was always talking about the “axis of resistance” and the defenders of Haram, which is how he referred to the soldiers that he was sending to Syria to help the Assad regime. All of this is gone and all of it was gone in such a short period of time. And I think Khamenei did not really expect this level of assault and this level of loss on a regional level. On the other hand, I think what’s really important is to take into account the Iranian people’s grievances over this matter.

    One of the things that I hear a lot from people who are not even political, like just ordinary citizens, is that we are starving to death, so why is our money being sent to Hezbollah or to Hamas, for example. This financial support has been, by the way, openly announced. It’s not a secret. They’re sending money and they’re very open about it. They’re bluntly talking about financing the “axis of resistance” and not only financing it but also creating it—they were the ones who created it. And there has been mass dissatisfaction among the people who consider it a form of betrayal, putting them in a very precarious and fragile situation security-wise by exposing them to war and to invasion and to starvation and to sanctions.

    I also think something that we need to think about and to take into account is that Iran has been the sole major regional ally of Palestine. Since the beginning of the revolution, pro-Palestine rhetoric has been one of the pillars of the Islamic Republic’s identity, with talk that we are going to conquer Jerusalem, we are going to free Palestine. Ayatollah Khomeini used to say that the path to Jerusalem goes through Karbala. And that was the slogan for the Iran-Iraq War—this sort of expansionist idea of, O.K., we want to go to free Palestine and free Jerusalem. And I think what happened in Gaza over the past two years, as horrific as it was, and there is no doubt that it was a genocide—it weakened the position of the Islamic Republic, although the world and particularly some post-colonial sorts don’t want to accept that. And they’re keeping silent at this moment because they think that by weakening the Iranian regime, the situation in Palestine will get worse. But with what happened in Gaza I think the Islamic Republic proved that they can do nothing but create even more chaos in the region.

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  • Iran’s Guards Arrest Foreigner Accused of Spying for Israel

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    Jan 10 (Reuters) – ‌Iran’s ​Revolutionary ‌Guards’ intelligence wing ​said it ‍had arrested a ​foreigner ​suspected ⁠of spying for Israel, the semi-official Tasnim news ‌agency reported on Saturday.

    Protests ​have ‌spread across ‍Iran since ⁠December 28 in response to soaring inflation and ​quickly turning political, with protesters demanding an end to clerical rule. Authorities accuse the U.S. and Israel of ​fomenting unrest.

    (Reporting by ReutersWriting by Muhammad Al ​GebalyEditing by Peter Graff)

    Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.

    Photos You Should See – January 2026

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  • Protests in Iran near the 2-week mark as authorities intensify crackdown on demonstrators

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    Protests sweeping across Iran neared the two-week mark Saturday, with the country’s government acknowledging the ongoing demonstrations despite an intensifying crackdown and as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world.Video above: Analyst calls situation “the greatest existential threat the Islamic Republic has faced since its inception”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 to at least 72 people killed and more than 2,300 others detained, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. Iranian state TV is reporting on security force casualties while portraying control over the nation.Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has signaled a coming clampdown, despite U.S. warnings. Tehran escalated its threats Saturday, with Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, warning that anyone taking part in protests will be considered an “enemy of God,” a death penalty charge. The statement carried by Iranian state television said even those who “helped rioters” would face the charge.“Prosecutors must carefully and without delay, by issuing indictments, prepare the grounds for the trial and decisive confrontation with those who, by betraying the nation and creating insecurity, seek foreign domination over the country,” the statement read. “Proceedings must be conducted without leniency, compassion or indulgence.”U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered support for the protesters.“The United States supports the brave people of Iran,” Rubio wrote Saturday on the social platform X. The State Department separately warned: “Do not play games with President Trump. When he says he’ll do something, he means it.”Video below: ‘Locked and loaded’: President Trump warns Iran against killing protestersState TV split-screen highlights Iran’s challengeSaturday marks the start of the work week in Iran, but many schools and universities reportedly held online classes, Iranian state TV reported. Internal Iranian government websites are believed to be functioning.State TV repeatedly played a driving, martial orchestral arrangement from the “Epic of Khorramshahr” by Iranian composer Majid Entezami, while showing pro-government demonstrations. The song, aired repeatedly during the 12-day war launched by Israel, honors Iran’s 1982 liberation of the city of Khorramshahr during the Iran-Iraq war. It has been used in videos of protesting women cutting away their hair to protest the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini as well.“Field reports indicate that peace prevailed in most cities of the country at night,” a state TV anchor reported. “After a number of armed terrorists attacked public places and set fire to people’s private property last night, there was no news of any gathering or chaos in Tehran and most provinces last night.”That was directly contradicted by an online video verified by The Associated Press that showed demonstrations in northern Tehran’s Saadat Abad area, with what appeared to be thousands on the street.“Death to Khamenei!” a man chanted.The semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and one of the few media outlets able to publish to the outside world, released surveillance camera footage of what it said came from demonstrations in Isfahan. In it, a protester appeared to fire a long gun, while others set fires and threw gasoline bombs at what appeared to be a government compound.The Young Journalists’ Club, associated with state TV, reported that protesters killed three members of the Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force in the city of Gachsaran. It also reported a security official was stabbed to death in Hamadan province, a police officer was killed in the port city of Bandar Abbas and another was killed in Gilan, and one person was slain in Mashhad.State television also aired footage of a funeral service attended by hundreds in Qom, a Shiite seminary city just south of Tehran.More weekend demonstrations plannedIran’s theocracy cut off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls on Thursday, though it allowed some state-owned and semiofficial media to publish. Qatar’s state-funded Al Jazeera news network reported live from Iran, but they appeared to be the only major foreign outlet able to work.Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who called for protests Thursday and Friday, asked in his latest message for demonstrators to take to the streets Saturday and Sunday. He urged protesters to carry Iran’s old lion-and-sun flag and other national symbols used during the time of the shah to “claim public spaces as your own.”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.Airlines have cancelled some flights to Iran over the demonstrations. Austrian Airlines said Saturday it had decided to suspend its flights to Iran “as a precautionary measure” through Monday. Turkish Airlines earlier announced the cancellation of 17 flights to three cities in Iran.

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates —

    Protests sweeping across Iran neared the two-week mark Saturday, with the country’s government acknowledging the ongoing demonstrations despite an intensifying crackdown and as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world.

    Video above: Analyst calls situation “the greatest existential threat the Islamic Republic has faced since its inception”

    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 to at least 72 people killed and more than 2,300 others detained, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. Iranian state TV is reporting on security force casualties while portraying control over the nation.

    Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has signaled a coming clampdown, despite U.S. warnings. Tehran escalated its threats Saturday, with Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, warning that anyone taking part in protests will be considered an “enemy of God,” a death penalty charge. The statement carried by Iranian state television said even those who “helped rioters” would face the charge.

    “Prosecutors must carefully and without delay, by issuing indictments, prepare the grounds for the trial and decisive confrontation with those who, by betraying the nation and creating insecurity, seek foreign domination over the country,” the statement read. “Proceedings must be conducted without leniency, compassion or indulgence.”

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered support for the protesters.

    “The United States supports the brave people of Iran,” Rubio wrote Saturday on the social platform X. The State Department separately warned: “Do not play games with President Trump. When he says he’ll do something, he means it.”

    Video below: ‘Locked and loaded’: President Trump warns Iran against killing protesters

    State TV split-screen highlights Iran’s challenge

    Saturday marks the start of the work week in Iran, but many schools and universities reportedly held online classes, Iranian state TV reported. Internal Iranian government websites are believed to be functioning.

    State TV repeatedly played a driving, martial orchestral arrangement from the “Epic of Khorramshahr” by Iranian composer Majid Entezami, while showing pro-government demonstrations. The song, aired repeatedly during the 12-day war launched by Israel, honors Iran’s 1982 liberation of the city of Khorramshahr during the Iran-Iraq war. It has been used in videos of protesting women cutting away their hair to protest the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini as well.

    “Field reports indicate that peace prevailed in most cities of the country at night,” a state TV anchor reported. “After a number of armed terrorists attacked public places and set fire to people’s private property last night, there was no news of any gathering or chaos in Tehran and most provinces last night.”

    That was directly contradicted by an online video verified by The Associated Press that showed demonstrations in northern Tehran’s Saadat Abad area, with what appeared to be thousands on the street.

    “Death to Khamenei!” a man chanted.

    The semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and one of the few media outlets able to publish to the outside world, released surveillance camera footage of what it said came from demonstrations in Isfahan. In it, a protester appeared to fire a long gun, while others set fires and threw gasoline bombs at what appeared to be a government compound.

    The Young Journalists’ Club, associated with state TV, reported that protesters killed three members of the Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force in the city of Gachsaran. It also reported a security official was stabbed to death in Hamadan province, a police officer was killed in the port city of Bandar Abbas and another was killed in Gilan, and one person was slain in Mashhad.

    State television also aired footage of a funeral service attended by hundreds in Qom, a Shiite seminary city just south of Tehran.

    More weekend demonstrations planned

    Iran’s theocracy cut off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls on Thursday, though it allowed some state-owned and semiofficial media to publish. Qatar’s state-funded Al Jazeera news network reported live from Iran, but they appeared to be the only major foreign outlet able to work.

    Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who called for protests Thursday and Friday, asked in his latest message for demonstrators to take to the streets Saturday and Sunday. He urged protesters to carry Iran’s old lion-and-sun flag and other national symbols used during the time of the shah to “claim public spaces as your own.”

    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.

    Airlines have cancelled some flights to Iran over the demonstrations. Austrian Airlines said Saturday it had decided to suspend its flights to Iran “as a precautionary measure” through Monday. Turkish Airlines earlier announced the cancellation of 17 flights to three cities in Iran.

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