Crackdown dims mass unrest in Iran amid waning fears of US strike

DUBAI– Iran’s deadly crackdown appears to have broadly quelled protests for now, according to a rights group and residents, as state media reported more arrests on Friday in the shadow of repeated US threats to intervene if the killing continues.

Fears of a US attack have retreated since Wednesday, when President Donald Trump said he’d been told killings in Iran were easing. US allies, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, conducted intense diplomacy with Washington this week to prevent a US strike, warning of repercussions for the wider region that would ultimately impact the United States, a Gulf official said.

The White House said on Thursday that Trump and his team have warned Tehran there would be “grave consequences”‌ if there is further bloodshed.

Trump understands that 800 scheduled executions were halted, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt added, saying the president was keeping “all of his options on the table.”

The protests erupted on December 28 over soaring inflation in Iran, whose economy has been crippled by sanctions, before spiralling into one of the biggest challenges yet to the clerical establishment that has run Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Axios reported that the director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, arrived in the US on Friday for talks on the situation in Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The news outlet also cited US sources as saying the US military is sending additional defensive and offensive capabilities to the region to be ready in case Trump orders a strike.

The US military’s Central Command didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Heavy security developments

With information flows from Iran obstructed by an internet blackout, several residents of Tehran said the capital had been quiet since Sunday. They said drones were flying over the city, where they’d seen no sign of protests on Thursday or Friday.

Iranian-Kurdish rights group Hengaw said that there had been no protest gatherings since Sunday, but “the security environment remains highly restrictive.”

“Our independent sources confirm a heavy military and security presence in cities and towns where protests previously took place, as well as in several locations that did not experience major demonstrations,” Norway-based Hengaw said in comments to Reuters.

Another resident in a northern city on the Caspian Sea said the streets also appeared calm.

The residents declined to be identified for their safety.

Sporadic unrest

There were, however, indications of unrest in some areas.

Hengaw reported that a female nurse was killed by direct gunfire from government forces during protests in Karaj, west of Iran. Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.

The state-affiliated Tasnim news outlet reported that rioters set fire to a local education office in Falavarjan County, in central Isfahan Province, on Thursday.

An elderly resident of a town in Iran’s northwestern region, where many Kurdish Iranians live and which has been the focus for many of the biggest flare-ups, said sporadic protests had continued, though not as intensely.

Describing violence earlier in the protests, she said: “I have not seen scenes like that before.”

The state-owned Press TV cited Iran’s police chief as saying calm had been restored across the country.

A death toll reported by US-based rights group HRANA has increased little since Wednesday, currently at 2,677 people, including 2,478 protesters and 163 people identified as affiliated with the government.

Iranian official told the news agency earlier this week that about 2,000 people had been killed.

The casualty numbers dwarf the death toll from previous bouts of unrest that have been suppressed by the state.