Unrest in Iran has killed more than 500 people, a rights group said, as Iran threatened to target United States military bases if Donald Trump carries out threats to intervene on behalf of protesters.
With the Islamic Republic's clerical establishment facing the biggest demonstrations since 2022, the US president has repeatedly threatened to intervene if force is used on protesters.
According to its latest figures — from activists inside and outside Iran — US-based rights group HRANA said on the weekend 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 provided an official toll, and Reuters news agency was unable to independently verify it.
Trump was to be briefed by his officials on Tuesday on options over Iran, including military strikes, using secret cyber weapons, widening sanctions and providing online help to anti-government sources, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf warned the US 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.
Authorities intensify crackdown
The protests started on 28 December in response to soaring prices, before turning against the clerical rulers who have governed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iranian authorities accuse the US and Israel of fomenting trouble and called for a nationwide rally on Monday to condemn "terrorist actions led by the United States and Israel" in Iran, state media reported.
The flow of information from Iran has been hampered by an internet blackout since Thursday.
Footage posted on social media on Saturday from Tehran showed large crowds marching along a street at night, clapping and chanting. The crowd "has no end nor beginning," a man is heard saying.
In footage from the north-eastern city of Mashhad, smoke can be seen billowing into the night sky from fires in the street, masked protesters, and a road strewn with debris, another video posted on Saturday showed. Explosions could be heard. Reuters verified the locations.
State TV showed dozens of body bags on the ground at the Tehran coroner's office, saying the dead were victims of events caused by "armed terrorists", as well as footage of loved ones gathered outside the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Centre in Tehran waiting to identify bodies.
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 the protests were an internal Iranian matter, but Israel's military was monitoring developments and was ready to respond "with power if need be".
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 Iran still recovering from last year's war and with its regional position weakened by blows to allies such as Lebanon's Hezbollah since the October 7 Hamas-led attacks against Israel.
Iran's unrest comes as Trump flexes US muscles on the world stage, having abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — a move widely seen as illegal, according to international law experts — and floating the possibility of acquiring Greenland by purchase or military force.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a TV 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.
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