The Arab Weekly – US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he was considering potential military action against Iran, amid mounting reports of deadly crackdowns against the country’s mass anti-government protests.
“They’re starting to, it looks like,” Trump said, when asked by reporters aboard Air Force One if Iran had crossed his previously stated red line of protesters being killed.
“We’re looking at it very seriously. The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options. We’ll make a determination,” he said.
Trump also said that Iran’s leadership had called him seeking “to negotiate” but said the US might intervene militarily before any talks are held.
“The leaders of Iran called” yesterday, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that “a meeting is being set up … They want to negotiate.”
He added, however, that “we may have to act before a meeting”.
The US president was to meet senior advisers on Tuesday to discuss options for Iran, a US official told Reuters. The Wall Street Journal had reported that options included military strikes, using secret cyber weapons, widening sanctions and providing online help to anti-government sources.
Trump said he was in contact with Iranian opposition leaders.
In response to Trump’s repeated threats to intervene, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran would hit back, calling US military and shipping “legitimate targets” in comments broadcast by state TV.
But Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who has often touted a muscular approach to foreign policy, said Trump “needs to embolden the protesters and scare the hell out of the regime.”
“If I were you, Mr President, I would kill the leadership that are killing the people,” Graham said Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” show. “You’ve got to end this.”
But some US lawmakers in both major parties on Sunday questioned whether military action against Iran is the best approach for the United States in Iran.
“I don’t know that bombing Iran will have the effect that is intended,” Republican Senator Rand Paul said on ABC News “This Week” show.
Rather than undermining the regime, a military attack on Iran could rally the people against an outside enemy, said Paul and Democratic Senator Mark Warner.
Warner, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” warned that a military strike against Iran could risk uniting Iranians against the United States “in a way that the regime has not been able to.”
For two weeks, Iran has been rocked by a protest movement that has swelled in spite of a crackdown rights groups warn has become a “massacre”.
Initially sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, the demonstrations have evolved into a serious challenge of the clerical regime in place since the 1979 revolution.
Information has continued to trickle out of Iran despite a days-long internet shutdown, with videos filtering out of capital Tehran and other cities over the past three nights showing large demonstrations.
Reports emerged of a growing protest death toll, and images showed bodies piled outside a morgue.
According to its latest figures, from activists inside and outside Iran, US-based rights group HRANA said it had verified the deaths of 490 protesters and 48 security personnel, with more than 10,600 people arrested in two weeks of unrest.
The US-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said it had received “eyewitness accounts and credible reports indicating that hundreds of protesters have been killed across Iran during the current internet shutdown”.
“A massacre is unfolding,” it said.
A video circulating on Sunday showed dozens of bodies accumulating outside a morgue south of Tehran.
One widely-shared video showed protesters again gathering in the Pounak district of Tehran shouting slogans in favour of the ousted monarchy.
The protests have become one of the biggest challenges to the rule of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, coming in the wake of Israel’s 12-day war against the Islamic republic in June, which was backed by the United States.
State TV has aired images of burning buildings, including a mosque, as well as funeral processions for security personnel.
But after three days of mass actions, state outlets were at pains to present a picture of calm returning, broadcasting images of smooth-flowing traffic on Sunday.
The Iranian government on Sunday declared three days of national mourning for “martyrs” including members of the security forces killed.
Authorities accused the US and Israel of fomenting trouble and called for a nationwide rally on Monday to condemn “terrorist actions led by the United States and Israel,” state media reported.
The flow of information from Iran has been hampered by an internet blackout since Thursday. Trump said on Sunday he would talk to Elon Musk about restoring internet access in Iran through his Starlink satellite service.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said Israel and the US were masterminding destabilisation and that Iran’s enemies had brought in “terrorists … who set mosques on fire … attack banks and public properties.
“Families, I ask you: do not allow your young children to join rioters and terrorists who behead people and kill others,” he said in a TV interview, adding that the government was ready to listen to the people and to resolve economic problems.