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Iran's president said on Tuesday he instructed the country's foreign minister to "pursue fair and equitable negotiations" with the United States, the first clear sign from Tehran it wants to try to negotiate as tensions remain high with Washington after the Mideast country's bloody crackdown on nationwide protests last month. The announcement came as a US Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that was approaching an American aircraft carrier early Tuesday morning. The Iranian Mission to the UN did not immediately comment on the incident. The US military announced the downing of the drone on Tuesday evening. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff has been planning to hold talks with Iranian officials in Turkey later this week, and the talks are still scheduled despite the drone incident. It was the first direct acknowledgment of the talks by the White House. "President Trump is always wanting to pursue diplomacy first, but obviously
Iran's supreme leader warned the United States on Sunday that if "they start a war, this time it will be a regional war". The comments from the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are the most-direct threat he's made so far. Iranian state television reported the comments online. It added that Khamenei said: "We are not the instigators and we do not seek to attack any country. But the Iranian nation will deliver a firm blow to anyone who attacks or harasses it.
Iran speaker of parliament said Sunday that the Islamic Republic now considers all European Union militaries to be terrorist groups. The comment by Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf follows an EU agreement last week to list Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group over its part in the bloody crackdown on nationwide protests in the country. Qalibaf cited a 2019 law as authorization for the announcement. That law was passed after the US listed the Guard as a terrorist group and allows for reciprocal action by Iran against any nations that follow that decision. Qalibaf made the announcement as he and others wore Guard uniforms in parliament. Qalibaf was a commander in the Guard.
An explosion tore through an apartment building Saturday in Iran's port city of Bandar Abbas, killing a 4-year-old girl as local media footage purportedly showed a security force member being carried out by rescuers. The blast happened a day before a planned naval drill by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes. Already, the US military had warned Iran not to threaten its warships or commercial traffic in the strait, on which Bandar Abbas sits. State television quoted a local fire official as blaming the blast on a gas leak. Media reported at least 14 others suffered injuries in the explosion at the eight-storey building, which blew out windows and covered the street below in debris. A local newspaper, Sobh-e Sahel, aired footage of one of its correspondents speaking in front of the building. The footage included a sequence that showed a man in black boots and a green security force uniform being carried out
As tensions soar over Iran's bloody crackdown on nationwide protests, satellite images show activity at two Iranian nuclear sites bombed last year by Israel and the United States that may be a sign of Tehran trying to obscure efforts to salvage any materials remaining there. The images from Planet Labs PBC show roofs have been built over two damaged buildings at the Isfahan and Natanz facilities, the first major activity noticeable by satellite at any of the country's stricken nuclear sites since Israel's 12-day war with Iran in June. Those coverings block satellites from seeing what's happening on the ground - right now the only way for inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor the sites as Iran has prevented access. Iran has not publicly discussed the activity at the two sites. The IAEA, a watchdog agency of the United Nations, did not respond to requests for comment. US President Donald Trump repeatedly has demanded Iran negotiate a deal over its nuclear
Activists said Tuesday that at least 6,126 people were killed in Iran's crackdown on nationwide protests and many more are still feared dead. The new figures came from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in multiple rounds of unrest in Iran. The group verifies each death with a network of activists on the ground in Iran. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll given authorities cutting off the internet and disrupting calls into the Islamic Republic. Iran's government has put the death toll at a far lower 3,117, saying 2,427 were civilians and security forces, and labelled the rest "terrorists." In the past, Iran's theocracy has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and three accompanying warships have arrived in the Middle East, bringing a renewed potential that President Donald Trump could opt to order airstrikes on Iran over its crackdown on protesters. The carrier, along with three destroyers, "is currently deployed to the Middle East to promote regional security and stability," US Central Command said Monday on social media. The strike group was in the Indian Ocean, Central Command said, and not in the Arabian Sea, which borders Iran. It will bring thousands of additional service members to the region, which has not had a US aircraft carrier since the USS Gerald R Ford was ordered in October to sail to the Caribbean as part of a pressure campaign on then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Trump told reporters last week that the ships were sent to the region "just in case". "We have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won't have to use it," he said. Trump earlier had threatened
Two Iranian-backed militias in the Mideast are signalling their willingness to launch new attacks, likely trying to back Iran on Monday as it worried about an approaching US aircraft carrier after President Donald Trump threatened military action over its crackdown on nationwide protests. Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels signalled a willingness to resume attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. That came just after Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah paramilitary group, long supported by Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, issued a direct threat late Sunday toward any attack targeting Iran, warning a "total war" in the region would be a result. However, both the Houthis and Kataib Hezbollah sat out from Israel's 12-day war on Iran in June that saw the United States bomb Iranian nuclear sites. The hesitancy to get involved shows the disarray still affecting Iran's self-described "Axis of Resistance" after facing attacks from Israel during its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Threats from Iraq
The bloodiest crackdown on dissent since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution is slowly coming into focus, despite authorities cutting off the Islamic Republic from the internet and much of the wider world. Cities and towns smell of smoke as fire-damaged mosques and government offices line streets. Banks have been torched, their ATMs smashed. Officials estimate the damage to be at least USD 125 million, according to an Associated Press tally of reports by the state-run IRNA news agency from over 20 cities. The number of dead demonstrators reported by activists continues to swell. Activists warn it shows Iran engaging in the same tactics it has used for decades, but at an unprecedented scale - firing from rooftops on demonstrators, shooting birdshot into crowds and sending motorcycle-riding paramilitary Revolutionary Guard volunteers in to beat and detain those who can't escape. "The vast majority of protesters were peaceful. The video footage shows crowds of people - including children an