Iran’s crackdown on the Islamic Republic’s nationwide protests last month has killed at least 7,002 people, and many more are feared dead.
In TEHRAN, Iran, Wednesday, (AP) The Azadi (Freedom) Monument towers over an annual rally marking the 1979 Islamic Revolution.The latest figures are according to the US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency. HRANA relies on a network of Iranian workers to verify deaths.
The Iranian government released its only death toll on January 21, suggesting that 3,117 people had been killed.
HT could not independently verify the death toll.
The death toll rises as Iran tries to negotiate with the United States over its nuclear program.
More Read
Iran-US tensions and Benjamin Netanyahu twistThe rising death toll from the protests adds to the overall tension in Iran, both at home and abroad, as it tries to negotiate with the United States over its nuclear program. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped up his demands on Tehran amid a second round of talks as he pressed his case directly with US President Donald Trump.
“I insisted that talks with Iran continue to be pursued. If that is possible, I let the prime minister know that would be a priority,” Trump later wrote on his Truth Social website.
“Last time Iran decided they better not make a deal, and they got hurt. … It didn’t work out well for them. Hopefully, this time they’ll be more reasonable and responsible.” Meanwhile, Netanyahu told reporters before boarding a plane to return to Israel that Trump believes his terms and Iran’s “understanding that they made a mistake last time when they couldn’t reach a deal, they can agree to terms that will enable them to reach a good deal.”
More Read
Netanyahu, on the other hand, said he did not “hide” his own “general skepticism” about any deal and insisted that any deal would have to make concessions on Iran’s ballistic missile program and support for militant proxies, not just the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. He described the talks with the US President as ‘excellent’.
Meanwhile, Iran still faces heated anger at home for the Islamic Republic’s sweeping suppression of all dissent. That anger is likely to intensify in the coming days as families of the dead begin the traditional 40 days of mourning for loved ones.
The discussion continuesIran’s senior security official Ali Larijani met Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani on Wednesday. Qatar hosts a large US military installation that Iran attacked in June after the Donald Trump administration bombed Iran’s nuclear sites during the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June. On Tuesday, Larizani also met with officials from the Palestinian Hamas militant group and Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in Oman.
Larijani told Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite news network that Iran had not received a specific proposal from Washington in Oman, but acknowledged an “exchange of messages”.
Qatar has been a key negotiator in the past with Iran, with which it shares a large offshore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf. The state-run Qatar News Agency reported that ruling Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani spoke with Trump about “the current situation in the region and international efforts aimed at strengthening regional security and peace”.
The United States has moved the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, ships and warplanes to the Middle East to pressure Iran into a deal and has the necessary firepower to strike the Islamic Republic if Trump chooses to do so.
Already, US forces have shot down a drone they said got too close to the Lincoln and came to the aid of a US-flagged ship that Iranian forces tried to stop in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Trump told the news website Axios that he is considering sending a second carrier to the region.
“We have an armada that’s going out there, and there could be another,” he said.
