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The commander of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, a force that played a key role in the recent crackdown on nationwide protests that left thousands dead, said on Saturday that the Guards were “more ready than ever to pull the trigger” as U.S. warships sail toward the Middle East.
Nournews, a news outlet close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reported on its Telegram channel that Iranian commander General Mohammad Pakpour warned the United States and Israel “To avoid any miscalculation.”
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and dear Iran More than ever, we are ready to pull the trigger and execute the orders and directives of our Commander in Chief. “Nournews quoted Parkpool as saying.
Tensions between Iran and the United States remain high after the collapse of Iran’s currency, the rial, on December 28 triggered a bloody crackdown on protests that swept the country for about two weeks.
Trump’s warning
President of the United States Donald Trump Tehran has been repeatedly warned, setting two red lines for the use of force: killing peaceful demonstrators and mass executions of those arrested during protests.
Trump has repeatedly said Iran has stopped executing 800 people detained during the protests. He did not elaborate on the source of the claim – which Iran’s top prosecutor Mohammad Mowahdi strongly denied in comments carried by the judiciary’s Mizan news agency on Friday.
On Thursday, Trump said aboard Air Force One that the United States was sending warships to Iran “just in case” he wanted to take action.
“We have a huge fleet heading in that direction and maybe we don’t have to use it,” Trump said.
The USS Abraham Lincoln and other warships traveling with it are in the Indian Ocean, a U.S. Navy official said on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Trump also noted that before Israel launched a 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in June, U.S. officials held multiple rounds of talks with Iran over its nuclear program and U.S. warplanes bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. He threatened Iran with military action that would make an earlier U.S. strike on Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities “look trivial.”
“They should make a deal before we hit them,” Trump said.
Airline jitters
Tensions have led at least one European airline to cancel some flights to the wider region, including air france Indicates that it has decided to temporarily suspend services Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
The airline canceled two return flights from Paris to Dubai over the weekend, saying it was due to the ongoing situation in the Middle East, without elaborating. The airline said it would resume flights to Dubai later on Saturday.
“The airline closely monitors developments in the Middle East in real time and continuously monitors the geopolitical situation in the regions that its aircraft serve and fly over to ensure the highest levels of flight safety and security,” the company said.
Arrivals information from Dubai International Airport also showed that KLM and Transavia canceled flights from Amsterdam on Saturday, and Luxair canceled flights from Luxembourg on Saturday. The airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some flights from KLM to Tel Aviv, Israel, were also canceled on Friday and Saturday, according to online flight trackers.
Death toll rises
While there have been no further demonstrations in Iran for several days, the death toll reported by activists continues to rise as information continues to spread, even as the most comprehensive internet blockade in Iran’s history continues for more than two weeks.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists news agency put the death toll at 5,137 on Saturday, with the death toll expected to rise. More than 27,700 people have been arrested, the report said.
The group has provided accurate figures from previous riots and relied on a network of Iranian activists to verify the death toll. The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protests or riots in the region in decades, recalling the chaos surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
The Iranian government announced the death toll for the first time on Wednesday, saying 3,117 people had died. The report said 2,427 of them were civilians and security forces, while the remainder were described as “terrorists.” In the past, Iran’s theocratic regime has underestimated or failed to report the death toll from unrest.
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Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, Samuel Petrequin in Paris, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Constantin and Amer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.