WW3 fears after Iran threatens retaliation if US intervenes in massive protests
Tehran has threatened to attack Israel and US bases if Donald Trump launches strikes against Iran over the brutal crackdown on anti-government protestors.
The US and Israel reportedly discussed military intervention in Iran with reports of ‘bodies piled up on each other’ in hospitals, sparking fears of a Third World War erupting.
Israel is said to be on high alert for possible US intervention in the Middle East after Trump repeatedly vowed to hit Iran ‘very hard’ if they ‘start killing people’.
However, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf warned in a speech on Sunday that military action would trigger swift retaliation.
The former Revolutionary Guards commander said: ‘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.’
Enormous crowds defied threats they would face the death penalty to gather across the country on Saturday night in the largest challenge to the rule of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Hundreds of protestors are feared to have been killed in the past three days by security forces loyal to the regime, which is fighting for its survival.
Iran is under an internet blackout, but verified video has emerged showing protestors taking over the streets in Tehran’s Gisha district and clashing with security forces in the city of Mashhad.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has estimated that at least 116 people have been killed in the protests, including 37 members of the military or security forces.
As many as 2,638 people have also been arrested, HRANA said.
A doctor, who did not want to be named, put the death toll at at least 217 on Thursday night alone.
Khamenei has labelled the demonstrators a ‘bunch of vandals’ seeking to ‘please’ Trump.
In a post on his Truth Social network last night, the US president said: ‘Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!’
The White House has reportedly began ‘preliminary discussions’ on a potential strike on Iran.
The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources to report that a ‘large-scale aerial strike’ against Iranian military targets was on the table.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the possibility of US intervention in a phone call on Saturday, Reuters reported, citing an Israeli source who was present.
The talks come six months after Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war in June, which the US joined to strike Iranian nuclear sites.
Iran then retaliated and fired missiles at an American air base in Qatar.
The latest anti-government protests in Iran – the first on this scale since 2022 – began on December 28 over rampant inflation.
They have since spread to more than 100 cities.
The regime imposed an internet blackout, which reportedly applies to international phone calls, on Thursday, according to internet freedom watchdog NetBlocks.
Despite this, images have emerged of protests across the country, as well as a huge fire ripping through a government building in Karaj, near Tehran.
Hospitals are said to be facing a ‘completely chaotic’ situation, overwhelmed with dead and injured patients.
An Iranian social worker who attended a protest in Tehran on Friday told CNN that the demonstration turned into a ‘nightmare’ when security forces began attacking people on the streets.
She said: ‘Bullets, who knows, tear gas, whatever you can think of, they would fire them. And it was very terrifying.’
Speaking on the Sunday morning TV round in the UK, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the government ‘would broadly use similar words’ about Iran’s government when Trevor Phillips asked about the UK saying we would ‘shed no tears’ over the end of Maduro in Venezuela.
Last night, the government said: ‘We are deeply concerned by reports of violence against protesters in Iran who are exercising their legitimate right to peaceful protest and are monitoring the situation closely.’
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