TEHRAN, Jan 25 : Iran’s powerful paramilitary unit, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a force which was key in putting down recent nationwide protests in a crackdown that left thousands of people dead, is “more ready than ever, finger on the trigger,” its commander said as US warships headed toward the Middle East.
Delivering the warning yesterday, IRGC commander Major General Md Pakpour, in a news report carried by Nournews – a media outlet closely linked to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council – said, “The Islamic Revolutionary Guards and dear Iran stand more ready than ever, finger on the trigger, to execute the orders and directives of the Commander-in-Chief.”
Similarly, the IRGC affiliated Fars News has said that the theocratic security force is ready to assail any foreign advances, and warning of further crackdowns of protesting ‘terrorists’, and those who aid them.
The slew of threats and geopolitical tensions between Tehran and Washington remain ever high, with the standoff following in the wave of protests which started from December 28.
While the demonstrations kicked off as an economic grievance, due to the dramatic collapse of the rial, they soon turned into a nationwide movement against the regime’s very existence, with pro-monarchy calls echoing from across the civilian strata.
The state crackdown has been an extremely bloody affair, with the security forces’ clampdown on protesters being considered by activists and analysts to the be worst one, since the 1979 revolution.
While public protests have largely subsided in recent days, activists say the death toll has continued to rise as information emerges despite a near-total internet blackout now stretching into its third week.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned Tehran against killing peaceful demonstrators or carrying out mass executions of those arrested during the unrest, reiterating threats of military intervention against actions he has termed as “red lines”.
He has claimed Iran halted the execution of 800 detainees following US warnings, a claim strongly denied on Friday by Iran’s top prosecutor Mohammad Movahedi, speaking to the judiciary-linked Mizan news agency.
Referring to 12-day Iran-Israel war of last year, which was later joined by the US, Trump repeated his threats of a military attack this week, warning that any future US action would make the previous US strikes “look like peanuts”.
“They should have made a deal before we hit them,” he said, referring to earlier negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme.
A US Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements, said Thursday that the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other warships travelling with it were in the Indian Ocean.
The tension has led at least two European airlines to suspend some flights to the wider region, amidst the grim uncertainties brewing in the region.
Although there have been no further demonstrations in Iran for days, the death toll reported by activists has continued to rise as information trickles out despite the most comprehensive internet blackout in Iran’s history, which has now lasted more than two weeks.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency yesterday put the death toll at 5,137, with the number expected to increase, with an alleged 27,700 people arrested; a number which is now widely considered to be far higher.
Iran International had previously reported a death toll of 12,000 between the nights of Jan 8 and 9, while UN Human Rights rapporteur Mai Sato had alleged the death count to have risen to more than 20,000, citing medical sources in the Islamic Republic.
The death toll has been very hard to verify independently, given the blockage of internet access, and curb on the flow of information, with authorities grossly underreporting all fatalities while further barring domestic media outlets from publishing any interviews of bereaved families or foreign media reports.
(UNI)
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