Confronting protests, Iran vows to strike back if US attacks

DUBAI: Tehran threatened retaliation on Sunday (Jan 11) against United States military bases and its arch-foe Israel, which was on high alert in case President Donald Trump carried out his threat of attacking Iran to protect protesters.

With the Islamic Republic’s clerical establishment facing the biggest demonstrations since 2022, Trump has repeatedly threatened to attack if force is used on protesters.

Dozens have died already, according to a rights group.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, speaking in parliament on Sunday, warned against “a miscalculation”.

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

DEATH TOLL INCREASES

Protests began on Dec 28 in response to soaring prices, before turning against the clerical rulers who have governed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Authorities accuse the US and Israel of fomenting unrest. Iran‘s police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said security forces had stepped up efforts to confront “rioters”.

A US-based rights group, HRANA, reported the death toll at 116, mostly protesters but also 37 members of the security forces. However, with the flow of information hampered by an internet blackout, the full picture is unclear.

State TV aired footage of dozens of body bags on the ground at the Tehran coroner’s office on Sunday, saying the dead were victims of events caused by “armed terrorists”.

Three Israeli sources, who were present for Israeli security consultations over the weekend, said Israel was on a high-alert footing for the possibility of any US intervention.

An Israeli military official said that the protests were an internal Iranian matter, but the Israeli military was monitoring developments, prepared defensively, and ready to respond “with power if need be”. An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment.

Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war in June last year, which the US briefly joined by attacking key nuclear installations. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at Israel and an American air base in Qatar.

IRAN DENOUNCES “RIOTERS AND TERRORISTS”

While the Iranian authorities have weathered previous protests, the latest have unfolded with Tehran still recovering from last year’s war and with its regional position weakened by blows to allies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah since the Oct 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.

Iran‘s unrest comes as Trump flexes US muscles on the world stage, having ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and floating the possibility of acquiring Greenland by purchase or military force.

Iran‘s President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a televised interview, said Israel and the US were masterminding destabilisation and that Iran‘s enemies had brought in “terrorists … who set mosques on fire …. attack banks, and public properties”.

“Families, I ask you: do not allow your young children to join rioters and terrorists who behead people and kill others,” he said, adding that the government was ready to listen to the people and to resolve economic problems.

A social media video posted on Saturday showed large crowds gathered in Tehran’s Punak neighbourhood at night, drumming on the railings of a bridge or other metal objects in an apparent sign of protest.

Another video showed large crowds marching along a Tehran street at night, clapping and chanting. The crowd “has no end nor beginning”, a man is heard saying.

Reuters verified the locations.

Iranian state TV broadcast funeral processions in western Iranian cities such as Gachsaran and Yasuj for security personnel killed in protests.

Authorities have not given a death toll.

State TV said 30 members of the security forces would be buried in the central city of Isfahan and that six more were killed by “rioters” in Kermanshah in the west.

US READY TO HELP, SAYS TRUMP

Trump, posting on social media on Saturday, said: “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”

In a phone call on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the possibility of US intervention in Iran, according to an Israeli source present for the conversation.

Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran‘s last shah and a prominent voice in the fragmented opposition, said Trump had observed Iranians’ “indescribable bravery”.

“Do not abandon the streets,” Pahlavi, who is based in the US, wrote on X.

Israel has not signalled a desire to intervene, with frictions between the two arch-foes deep over Israeli concerns about Iran‘s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

In an interview with the Economist published on Friday, Netanyahu said there would be horrible consequences for Iran if it were to attack Israel. Alluding to the protests, he said: “Everything else, I think we should see what is happening inside Iran“.