Trump says Iran wants to negotiate after reports of hundreds killed in unrest
Amidst unrest, Trump claims Iran seeks talks, but warns of strong action. Tehran blames the US and Israel, but signals openness to diplomacy
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Iran steps up response to country’s largest protests in years
US President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said on Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.
Iran had no direct reaction to Trump’s comments, which came after the foreign minister of Oman – long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran – travelled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear programme and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defence.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to foreign diplomats in Tehran, insisted “the situation has come under total control” in fiery remarks that blamed Israel and the US for the violence, without offering evidence.
“That’s why the demonstrations turned violent and bloody to give an excuse to the American president to intervene,” Araghchi said, in comments carried by the Qatar-funded Al Jazeera satellite news network. Al Jazeera has been allowed to report from inside the country live despite the internet being shut off.
However, Araghchi said Iran was “open to diplomacy.” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said a channel to the US remained open, but talks needed to be “based on the acceptance of mutual interests and concerns, not a negotiation that is one-sided, unilateral and based on dictation”.
On Monday, Iran drew tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators to Tehran’s Enghelab Square, or “Islamic Revolution” Square. It was a show of force for the theocracy after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, which appeared to number in the tens of thousands, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”