Iran acknowledges mass deaths in protests, but says situation is under control as Trump mulls response

Iran’s theocratic rulers are under the most intense pressure they have felt in years, as President Trump leaves office option of US military intervention on the table as the death toll rises rapidly amid more than two weeks of anti-government fighting protests throughout the Islamic Republic.

Trump said Sunday that Iranian officials had called him looking to “negotiate” after his repeated threats to intervene if authorities kill protesters. Meanwhile, in an unusual move, IranState-controlled media on Sunday aired video showing mass casualties inside and outside a morgue in a Tehran suburb.

Video shared widely online shows dozens of bodies outside the morgue, which News themezone has geolocated in the southern Tehran suburb of Kahrizak. The bodies were wrapped in black bags and people can be seen crying and looking for their loved ones at the scene.

The state television reporter says in the video that some of the dead may have been involved in violence, but that “most of them are ordinary people, and their families are also ordinary people.”

A video posted by social media users on Sunday showed scenes from the same morgue, and people could be heard crying in the background while others appeared to be searching among the bodies for their loved ones.

It is unclear why Iranian authorities might have chosen to show the mass casualties, but it could be an attempt to show sympathy with the protesters and reinforce their narrative that it is more radical actors, inspired by Trump’s messages of support, who are behind the violence, not the government.

President Trump and Iranian officials have stepped up their warnings over the past week, with both sides insisting they are ready for a military confrontation but not seeking it.

However, on Sunday, Trump said Iran’s leaders had called to talk.

Trump issues new warning, says Iran seeks negotiations

“Iran’s leaders called” yesterday, he told reporters Sunday on Air Force One, saying “a meeting is being arranged… They want to negotiate.”

“We may have to act before a meeting,” Trump warned. He first warned 10 days ago that if Iran killed protesters, the United States would “come to their rescue,” but has yet to say what exactly would prompt any action against the regime, or what that might entail.

A senior US official confirmed to News themezone on Sunday that the president had been briefed on new options for military strikes on Iran, after Trump warned that if the regime began “killing people like it has in the past, we would get involved.”

“We will hit them very hard where it hurts the most,” he said at the White House. “And that doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but hitting them very, very hard where it hurts the most.”

The United States has not yet moved forces in preparation for possible attacks on Iran, military Central Command officials told News themezone over the weekend.

Iran’s top diplomat says protests are ‘under total control’

Iran did not confirm any direct approach to the Trump administration, but speaking on Monday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi suggested that the regime had controlled the protests, repeating the government’s claim that the United States was to blame for the violence.

The “situation is now under complete control,” Araghchi said, according to the Reuters news agency, as Iranian state television aired videos of mass pro-government demonstrations across the country.

Government-controlled broadcaster IRIB called a rally and funeral march an “Iranian uprising against American Zionist terrorism.”

In the face of repeated threats from Trump, Araghchi said Iran was “ready for war, but also for dialogue” with the United States at any time.

In another sign that the regime may believe it is weathering the storm, the foreign minister said internet service would resume in coordination with Iran’s security services, although he did not offer a specific timeline.

Human rights groups say death toll from protests could reach thousands

According to human rights groups based outside the country, who rely on contacts inside Iran, the death toll has already climbed into the hundreds.

The Washington, DC-based Human Rights Activist News Agency said that as of Sunday, the 15th day of protests, at least 544 people had died, including 483 protesters and 47 members of the security forces. HRANA said unrest had broken out in 186 cities in Iran’s 31 provinces.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), which is also based in the United States, said over the weekend that it had “eyewitness accounts and credible reports indicating that hundreds of protesters have been killed across Iran during the current internet shutdown,” accusing the regime of carrying out “a massacre.”

The Norway-based Iranian Human Rights (IHR) organization said on Saturday that it had confirmed that at least 192 protesters had been killed, but that the number could exceed 2,000.

“Unverified reports indicate that at least several hundred, and according to some sources, more than 2,000 people may have been killed,” IHR said in a statement, adding that according to its estimates, more than 2,600 protesters had been arrested.

HRANA estimates that more than 10,000 people have been detained.