Activists say over 500 killed in crackdown on Iran protests as Trump weighs steps |
US President Donald Trump will be briefed by senior officials in his administration later this week on possible responses to the deadly violence in Iran, where hundreds of protesters have reportedly been killed and thousands more detained over the past two weeks, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing US officials.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to retaliate against Iran’s leaders if protesters are killed, and on Saturday said that the US was “ready to help” Iranians achieve freedom.
The protests in Iran, now in their 15th day, began as economic demonstrations but escalated rapidly into calls for the collapse of the Islamic Republic and regime change. Tehran has responded forcefully to the demonstrations, and activists said on Sunday that at least 538 people had been killed since December 28.
The US president’s meeting, planned for Tuesday, will be a discussion about possible next steps, including military strikes, deploying secretive cyber weapons against Iranian military and civilian sites, placing more sanctions on Iran’s government and boosting anti-government sources online, the Journal reported.
The New York Times and the Journal reported Saturday that Trump had been presented with military options for a strike, but hadn’t made a final decision.
Even if the US does choose to proceed with military action, the UK’s Sunday Times suggested that this would not happen in the immediate future.
According to the newspaper, the US military has informed Trump that it is not yet ready to launch strikes and needs more time to prepare. Officials in the Middle East have communicated that they need additional time to bolster both personnel and defenses in the region before they can proceed with strikes, the report said.
The Qatari Al Araby Television Network reported, however, that Israel believes the US will strike Iran sooner rather than later.
As Washington weighs its options, Tehran has continued to pin blame on Israel and the US for the unrelenting protests, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accusing the two countries of trying to “sow chaos and disorder” in the Islamic Republic.
“Protesting is the people’s right,” he said in an interview with state TV on Sunday,........