TEHRAN: Iran on Wednesday vowed to fast-track trials for people arrested over a massive wave of protests, after US President Donald Trump threatened “very strong action” if the Islamic republic goes ahead with hangings.
In Tehran, authorities held a funeral ceremony for over 100 members of the security forces and other “martyrs” killed in the demonstrations, which authorities have branded as “riots” while accusing protesters of waging “acts of terror”.
The protest movement across Iran, initially sparked by economic grievances, has turned into one of the biggest challenges yet to the leadership since it took power in the 1979 revolution.
Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on a visit to a prison holding protest detainees that “if a person burned someone, beheaded someone and set them on fire, then we must do our work quickly”, in comments broadcast by state television.
Iranian news agencies also quoted him as saying the trials should be held in public and said he had spent five hours in a prison in Tehran to examine the cases.
Footage broadcast by state media showed the judiciary chief seated before an Iranian flag in a large, ornate room in the prison, interrogating a prisoner himself.
The detainee, dressed in grey clothing and his face blurred, is accused of taking Molotov cocktails to a park in Tehran.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to Iran Mudassir Tipu wrote on X that “international calls from Iran’s mobiles and landlines have resumed”.
“This information will be helpful to our nationals to immediately establish contacts with their near and dear ones.”
Trump again threatens intervention
Trump on Tuesday said in a CBS News interview that the United States would act if Iran began hanging protesters.
“We will take very strong action if they do such a thing,” said the American leader, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military intervention.
“When they start killing thousands of people — and now you’re telling me about hanging. We’ll see how that’s going to work out for them,” Trump said.
Tehran called the American warnings a “pretext for military intervention”.
Iran’s UN mission posted a statement on X, vowing that Washington’s “playbook” would “fail again”.
“US fantasies and policy toward Iran are rooted in regime change, with sanctions, threats, engineered unrest, and chaos serving as the modus operandi to manufacture a pretext for military intervention,” the post said.
Rights groups accuse the government of fatally shooting protesters and masking the scale of the crackdown with an internet blackout imposed on January 8.
“Metrics show Iran remains offline as the country wakes to another day of digital darkness,” said internet monitor Netblocks on Wednesday in a post on X, adding that the blackout had lasted 132 hours.
However, some information has trickled out of Iran.
New videos on social media, with locations verified by AFP, showed bodies lined up in the Kahrizak morgue just south of the Iranian capital, with the corpses wrapped in black bags and distraught relatives searching for loved ones.
Calls to halt executions
Tehran prosecutors have said Iranian authorities would press capital charges of “waging war against God” on some detainees.
According to state media, hundreds of people have been arrested.
State media has also reported on the arrest of a foreign national for espionage in connection with the protests. No details were given on the person’s nationality or identity.
The US State Department on its Farsi language X account said 26-year-old protestor Erfan Soltani had been sentenced to be executed on Wednesday.
“Erfan is the first protester to be sentenced to death, but he won’t be the last,” the State Department said, adding more than 10,600 Iranians had been arrested.
Rights group Amnesty International called on Iran to immediately halt all executions, including Soltani’s.
Trump has urged on his Truth Social platform for Iranians to “KEEP PROTESTING”, adding: “I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”
It was not immediately clear what meetings he was referring to or what the nature of the help would be.
Iran warns neighbours it could strike US bases if Washington intervenes
Tehran has warned neighbouring countries hosting US troops that it would retaliate against American bases if Washington carries out threats to intervene in protests in Iran, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday.
The Iranian official, a senior figure speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tehran had asked US allies in the region to “prevent Washington from attacking Iran”.
“Tehran has told regional countries, from Saudi Arabia and UAE to Turkiye, that US bases in those countries will be attacked” if the US targets Iran, the official said.
The official added that direct contacts between Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff had been suspended, reflecting mounting tensions.
Meanwhile, three diplomats told Reuters that some personnel had been advised to leave the US military’s Al Udeid Air Base by Wednesday evening, although there were no immediate signs of a large-scale evacuation of troops as took place in the hours before an Iranian missile attack last year.
Al Udeid is the Middle East’s largest US base, housing around 10,000 troops.
One of the diplomats described the move as a “posture change” rather than an “ordered evacuation”.
The US embassy in Doha had no immediate comment and Qatar‘s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for confirmation or comment.
There was no sign of a large-scale movement of troops off the base to a nearby soccer stadium and shopping mall, as took place last year in the hours before Iran targeted the base with missiles in retaliation for US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear targets.
According to an Israeli assessment, Trump has decided to intervene, although the scope and timing of this action remain unclear, an Israeli official said.
‘Rising casualties’
European nations have also signalled their anger over the crackdown, with France, Germany and the United Kingdom among the countries that summoned their Iranian ambassadors, as did the European Union.
“The rising number of casualties in Iran is horrifying,” said EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, vowing further sanctions.
Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights claimed it had confirmed 734 people killed during the protests, including nine minors, but warned the death toll was likely far higher.
“The real number of those killed is likely in the thousands,” IHR’s director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam insisted.
Iran has not officially released any figures so far.
Iranian state media has said dozens of members of the security forces have been killed, with their funerals turning into large pro-government rallies.
Authorities in Tehran have announced a mass funeral ceremony in the capital on Wednesday for the “martyrs” of recent days.
Amir, an Iraqi computer scientist, returned to Baghdad on Monday and described dramatic scenes in Tehran.
“On Thursday night, my friends and I saw protesters in Tehran’s Sarsabz neighbourhood amid a heavy military presence. The police were firing rubber bullets,” he told AFP in Iraq.
Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran’s ousted shah, called on the military to stop suppressing protests.
“You are the national military of Iran, not the military of the Islamic Republic,” he said in a statement.
‘Serious challenge’
The government has sought to regain control of the streets with nationwide rallies that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed as proof that the protest movement was defeated, calling them a “warning” to the US.
In power since 1989 and now aged 86, Khamenei has faced significant challenges, most recently the 12-day war in June against Israel, which forced him to go into hiding.
Analysts have cautioned that it is premature to predict the immediate demise of the theocratic system, pointing to the repressive levers the leadership controls, including the Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is charged with safeguarding the Islamic revolution.
Nicole Grajewski, professor at the Sciences Po Centre for International Studies, told AFP the protests represented a “serious challenge” to the Islamic republic, but it was unclear if they would unseat the leadership, pointing to “the sheer depth and resilience of Iran’s repressive apparatus”.
