DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Nationwide protests challenging Iran’s theocracy noticed protesters flood the streets within the nation’s capital and its second-largest metropolis into Sunday, crossing the two-week mark as violence surrounding the demonstrations has killed a minimum of 116 individuals, activists stated.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from overseas has grown harder. However the demise toll within the protests has grown, whereas 2,600 others have been detained, in line with the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists Information Company.
In the meantime, Iran’s parliament met Sunday to debate the continuing protests shaking the nation, with lawmakers at one level dashing to the entrance of the meeting to chant: “Dying to America!”
The present within the parliament, managed by hard-liners, comes as Iran’s theocracy struggles to include the demonstrations, now two weeks outdated. Lawmakers later chanted different slogans in assist of the federal government.
These overseas worry the data blackout will embolden hard-liners inside Iran’s safety companies to launch a bloody crackdown, regardless of warnings from U.S. President Donald Trump he is prepared to strike the Islamic Republic to guard peaceable demonstrators.
Trump provided assist for the protesters, saying on social media that “Iran is taking a look at FREEDOM, maybe like by no means earlier than. The USA stands prepared to assist!!!” The New York Instances and Wall Road Journal, citing nameless U.S. officers, stated on Saturday night time that Trump had been given navy choices for a strike on Iran, however hadn’t made a closing choice.
The State Division individually warned: “Don’t play video games with President Trump. When he says he’ll do one thing, he means it.”
On-line movies despatched out of Iran, possible utilizing Starlink satellite tv for pc transmitters, purportedly confirmed demonstrators gathering in northern Tehran’s Punak neighborhood. There, it appeared authorities shut off streets, with protesters waving their lit cell phones. Others banged metallic whereas fireworks went off.
Different footage purportedly confirmed demonstrators peacefully marching down a road and others honking their automotive horns on the road.
In Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest metropolis, some 725 kilometers (450 miles) northeast of Tehran, footage purported to indicate protesters confronting safety forces. Flaming particles and dumpsters may very well be seen on the street, blocking the highway. Mashhad is house to the Imam Reza shrine, the holiest in Shiite Islam, making the protests there carry heavy significance for the nation’s theocracy.
Protests additionally appeared to occur in Kerman, 800 kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Tehran.
Iranian state tv on Sunday morning took a web page from demonstrators, having their correspondents seem on streets in a number of cities to indicate calm areas with a date stamp proven on display screen. Tehran and Mashhad weren’t included. Additionally they confirmed pro-government demonstrations in Qom and Qazvin.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has signaled a coming clampdown, regardless of U.S. warnings. Tehran escalated its threats Saturday, with Iran’s legal professional basic, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, warning that anybody collaborating in protests can be thought of an “enemy of God,” a death-penalty cost. The assertion carried by Iranian state tv stated even those that “helped rioters” would face the cost.
Iran’s theocracy lower off the nation from the web and worldwide phone calls on Thursday, although it allowed some state-owned and semiofficial media to publish. Qatar’s state-funded Al Jazeera information community reported stay from Iran, however they seemed to be the one main overseas outlet in a position to work.
Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who known as for protests Thursday and Friday, requested in his newest message for demonstrators to take to the streets Saturday and Sunday. He urged protesters to hold Iran’s outdated lion-and-sun flag and different nationwide symbols used through the time of the shah to “declare public areas as your personal.”
Pahlavi’s support of and from Israel has drawn criticism prior to now — notably after the 12-day struggle. Demonstrators have shouted in assist of the shah in some protests, nevertheless it isn’t clear whether or not that’s assist for Pahlavi himself or a need to return to a time earlier than the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The demonstrations started Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial forex, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, because the nation’s financial system is squeezed by worldwide sanctions partly levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls immediately difficult Iran’s theocracy.
