The US on Tuesday, January 13, announced that any county doing business with Iran will attract a tariff of 25 per cent, mounting economic pressure on the Islamic republic where the death toll in the ongoing nationwide protests has reached at least 646 people.
In a poston X, the White House announced the decision to impose the tariffs.
Death toll from Iran’s protests reaches at least 646
The death toll from Iran’s nationwide protests has reached at least 646 people killed, activists said Tuesday, with the number expected to rise further.
The toll comes from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate throughout multiple years of demonstrations. It relies on a network of activists inside Iran that confirms all reported fatalities.
With communications blocked in Iran, the AP has been unable to independently confirm the group’s toll. Iran’s government has not provided casualty figures for the demonstrations.
Another over 10,600 people have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous rounds of unrest in Iran in recent years. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said of those killed, 490 were protesters and 48 were members of security forces.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll.
President Donald Trump said Iran reached out to the US and proposed negotiations after he threatened action in response to a crackdown on protesters in the Middle Eastern country.
Defiance in Parliament
The threat to strike the US military and Israel came during a parliamentary speech by Mohammad Baagher Qalibaf, the hard-liner speaker of the body who has run for the presidency in the past. He directly threatened Israel, calling it “the occupied territory.”
“In the event of an attack on Iran, both the occupied territory and all American military centres, bases and ships in the region will be our legitimate targets,” Qalibaf said. “We do not consider ourselves limited to reacting after the action and will act based on any objective signs of a threat.”
Lawmakers rushed the dais in parliament, shouting: “Death to America!”
It remains unclear how serious Iran is about launching a strike, particularly after its air defences were destroyed during the 12-day war in June with Israel. Any decision to go to war would rest with Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The US military has said in the Mideast it is “postured with forces that span the full range of combat capability to defend our forces, our partners and allies and US interests.” Iran targeted US forces at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in June, while the US Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet is stationed in the island kingdom of Bahrain.
