Trump weighs response to Iran protests as Tehran keeps talks open

Dubai: Iran said on Monday it is keeping communications open with the U.S. as President Donald Trump weighed responses to a deadly crackdown on ​nationwide protests, which pose one of the stiffest challenges to clerical rule since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Trump said on Sunday the U.S. may meet Iranian officials and he was in contact with Iran's opposition, while ‌piling pressure on its leaders, including threatening possible military action over lethal violence against protesters.

U.S.-based rights group HRANA said it had verified the deaths of ⁠544 people - 496 protesters and 48 security personnel, with 10,681 people arrested ‌since the protests began on December 28 and spread around the country.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the tallies. The flow of information from the Islamic Republic has been hampered by an internet blackout since Thursday.

Iran's leaders are facing fierce demonstrations that evolved from complaints about dire economic hardships to defiant calls for the fall of the deeply entrenched clerical establishment, and with the country's regional clout much reduced.

But despite the massive scale of the protests, there are no signs of splits in the Shi'ite clerical leadership, military or security forces, and demonstrators have no clear central leadership. The opposition is fragmented.

In verified video footage, Iranians gathered at the Kahrizak Forensic Centre in Tehran on Sunday, standing ​over rows of dark body bags.

Iran has not given an official death toll, but blames the bloodshed on U.S. interference and what it calls Israeli- and U.S.-backed terrorists. State-run media has focused attention on the deaths of security forces.

'Communication channel with US open', Araqchi says

"The communication channel between our Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and the U.S. special envoy (Steve Witkoff) is open and messages are exchanged whenever necessary," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday.

Contacts also remain open through traditional intermediary Switzerland, he said.

"They (the U.S.) touched upon some cases, ideas were brought up and in ‌general (...) the Islamic Republic is ‌a country that never left the negotiating table", Baghaei said. But he added that "contradictory messages" from the U.S. showed a lack of seriousness and were not convincing.

Araqchi reiterated in a briefing to foreign ambassadors in Tehran that the Islamic Republic was ready for war but also open to dialogue.

The ambassadors of Britain, ⁠Italy, Germany and France in Tehran were summoned to the foreign ministry, semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Monday, and asked to relay to their governments Tehran's request to withdraw their support for the protests.

Iran considers any political or media support for the protests "an unacceptable intervention in the internal security of the country", Tasnim added.

Addressing a large crowd in Tehran's Enqelab Square on Monday, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Iranians were fighting a war on four fronts - "economic war, psychological warfare, military war against the U.S. and Israel, and today a ⁠war against terrorism."

Araqchi said on Monday that a total of 53 mosques and 180 ambulances had been set on fire since the protests erupted, adding that "no Iranian ⁠would attack a mosque".

CCTV footage from inside Tehran’s Abuzar Mosque showed a dozen people, most wearing face masks, ransacking the structure, throwing books onto the ground and ‌destroying furniture last week. Reuters verified the time stamp and location. State media reported that the mosque was set on fire on January 9.

'We might meet Iranians', Trump says

Trump ‌said on Sunday that Iran had called to negotiate on its disputed nuclear programme. Israel and the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear sites in a 12-day war in June.

"Iran wants to negotiate, yes. We might meet with them. A meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what is happening before the meeting, but a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate," he told reporters on ‍Air Force One.

Trump was to meet with senior advisers on Tuesday to discuss options for Iran, a U.S. official told Reuters. The Wall Street Journal reported that the options included military strikes, using secret cyber weapons, widening sanctions and providing online help to anti-government sources.

Striking military installations could be highly risky. Some bases of elite military and security forces may be located in heavily populated areas so any attack ordered by Trump could inflict large civilian casualties.

Parliament Speaker Qalibaf warned Washington against "a miscalculation".

"Let us be clear: in the case of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories (Israel) as well as all U.S. bases and ships will be our legitimate target," said Qalibaf, a former commander in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

However, Tehran is still recovering from last year's war, and its regional clout has been much weakened by blows to allies such as Lebanon's Hezbollah since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Israel also killed top Iranian military commanders in the June war.

Situation under total control' Araqchi says

The protests began in response to soaring prices that have worsened daily hardships, before turning against the clerical rulers who have governed for more than 45 years.

Iranians have grown increasingly resentful of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, ​whose business interests including oil and gas, construction and telecommunications are worth billions ‌of dollars.

Araqchi said on Monday the situation was "under total control", after violence linked to protests spiked over the weekend. He said Trump's warning had motivated what he called terrorists to target protesters and security forces in order to invite foreign intervention.

He said internet service would be resumed in coordination with security authorities.