PARIS: Iran on Wednesday (Jan 28) rejected holding negotiations with america if it makes threats in opposition to the Islamic republic, after President Donald Trump refused to rule out navy intervention over its lethal crackdown on protests.
With a US naval strike group led by an aircraft carrier lurking in Center East waters, high Iranian officers additionally reached out to key Arab states in behind-the-scenes diplomacy to rally assist.
A rights group mentioned that it has verified over 6,200 deaths, principally of protesters killed by safety forces, within the wave of demonstrations that rocked the clerical management since late December however peaked on Jan 8-9.
Activists say that the precise toll might be many occasions increased with an internet shutdown nonetheless complicating efforts to verify details about the size of the killings.
Trump has not dominated out navy motion in opposition to Iran in response to the crackdown, whereas showing to maintain his choices open. A strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln has now arrived in Center Jap waters, US Central Command mentioned, with out revealing its exact location.
Analysts say choices embrace strikes on navy services or focused hits in opposition to the management underneath Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a full-scale bid to deliver down the system that has dominated Iran because the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the shah.
“REDUCING ESCALATION”
However International Minister Abbas Araghchi mentioned “conducting diplomacy via navy risk can’t be efficient or helpful”.
“If they need negotiations to take form, they have to definitely put aside threats, extreme calls for and elevating illogical points,” he mentioned in televised feedback.
Araghchi mentioned he in current days he had “no contact” with US Center East envoy Steve Witkoff and that “Iran has not sought negotiations”.
Following a name on Tuesday between Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and de facto Saudi chief Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Iran reached out to different Arab states allied to america in an obvious bid to rally assist.
The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme Nationwide Safety Council Ali Larijani spoke with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who can be overseas minister, either side mentioned.
Sheikh Mohammed emphasised Qatar’s assist for “all efforts aimed toward lowering escalation and attaining peaceable options in a way that enhances safety and stability within the area”, the Qatari overseas ministry mentioned.
Egyptian International Minister Badr Abdelatty in the meantime held separate calls with each Araghchi and Witkoff, Cairo mentioned.
Abdelatty burdened the necessity to intensify efforts to “ease tensions and work in the direction of deescalation” and create the “essential situations to renew dialogue between the US and Iran”, the Egyptian overseas ministry mentioned.
New billboards have in the meantime appeared in Tehran exhibiting Iran putting an American plane provider and in addition slogans of Khamenei denouncing the US, in response to AFP journalists.
“NEW DIMENSIONS OF CRACKDOWN”
In an up to date toll, the US-based Human Rights Activists Information Company (HRANA) mentioned it had confirmed that 6,221 people had been killed, together with 5,856 protesters, 100 minors, 214 members of the safety forces and 49 bystanders.
However the group, which has an in depth community of sources inside Iran and has tracked the protests each day since they started, added it was nonetheless investigating one other 17,091 potential fatalities.
Not less than 42,324 individuals have been arrested, it mentioned.
HRANA warned that the crackdown was persevering with with safety forces looking out hospitals for wounded protesters, docs who helped protesters arrested, and “pressured confessions” broadcast on state tv.
These developments “spotlight new dimensions of the continued safety crackdown within the aftermath of the protests”.
In the meantime, Iran on Wednesday executed a person arrested in April 2025 on costs of spying for Israel’s espionage company Mossad, the judiciary mentioned.
Rights teams have beforehand mentioned 12 individuals have been hanged on comparable costs within the wake of Israel’s 12-day battle with Iran in June.
They’ve expressed concern that protesters may additionally face execution. The judiciary has already indicated a few of these arrested may face costs of capital crimes.
