- A human rights group reports more than 500 deaths during two weeks of unrest.
- The internet blackout continues, limiting the flow of information throughout Iran.
- Iran summons UK envoy to Foreign Office over embassy protest.
The Iranian government on Sunday declared three days of national mourning for “martyrs”, including members of the security forces killed in two weeks of protests, state television said.
The government described the fight against what it has called “unrest” as a “battle of national Iranian resistance against the United States and the Zionist regime,” using the term the clerical leadership uses to refer to Israel, which the Islamic republic does not recognize.
President Masoud Pezeshkian urged people to take part in a “national resistance march” with nationwide demonstrations on Monday to denounce the violence, which the government said was committed by “urban terrorist criminals,” state television reported.
The protests, initially sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, have become a movement against the theocratic system in place in Iran since the 1979 revolution. They have now lasted for two weeks.
The protests have become one of the biggest challenges to the government of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, following Israel’s 12-day war against the Islamic republic in June, which was backed by the United States.
The protests have increased in recent days despite the Internet blackout that has lasted more than 72 hours, according to the Netblocks monitor. Campaigners have warned that the shutdown is limiting the flow of information and that the real cost risks being much higher.
Death toll reaches 500: human rights group
Unrest in Iran has killed more than 500 people, a human rights group said Sunday, as Tehran threatened to attack US military bases if President Donald Trump makes good on his threats to intervene on behalf of protesters.
As the Islamic Republic’s clerical establishment faces the largest demonstrations since 2022, Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene if force is used against protesters.
According to its latest figures (from activists inside and outside Iran), US-based human rights group HRANA said it had verified the deaths of 490 protesters and 48 security personnel, with more than 10,600 people arrested in two weeks of unrest.
Iran has not given an official toll and Reuters was unable to independently verify the tolls.
Trump to meet with top advisers
Trump will meet with top advisers on Tuesday to discuss options for Iran, a US official said. Reuters on Sunday. He Wall Street Journal had reported that options included military strikes, the use of secret cyber weapons, expanded sanctions and providing online aid to anti-government sources.
The speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, warned Washington against “a miscalculation.”
“Let us be clear: in the event of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories (Israel), as well as all American bases and ships, will be our legitimate target,” said Qalibaf, a former commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard.
The flow of information from Iran has been hampered by an internet blackout since Thursday.
The unrest in Iran comes as Trump flexes American muscles internationally, having ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and discussed acquiring Greenland by purchase or force.
Iranian President Pezeshkian said Israel and the United States were planning destabilization and that Iran’s enemies had brought in “terrorists… who set fire to mosques… attack banks and public properties.”
“Families, I ask you: do not allow your young children to join the rioters and terrorists who behead people and kill others,” he said in a television interview, adding that the government is willing to listen to the people and solve economic problems.
Iran summoned the British ambassador to the Foreign Office on Sunday over “interventionist comments” attributed to the British foreign minister and a protester removing the Iranian flag from the London embassy building and replacing it with a style of flag used before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Britain’s Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Iranian state television broadcast funeral processions in Western cities such as Gachsaran and Yasuj for security personnel killed in the protests.
State television 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.
