Iranian cleric rails against U.S., calls for death penalty for demonstrators, as protests appear to ebb

Iran's lifelessly crackdown appears to feature generally squelched protests for at present, according to a rights group and residents, as state media reported more arrests on Friday in the shadow of U.S. Threats to intervene if the killing continues.

After President Donald Trump's repeated threats of military action against ​Iran in support of protesters, fears of a U.S. Attack have retreated since Wednesday.

U.S. Allies including Saudi Arabia and Qatar conducted intense diplomacy with Washington this week to prevent a U.S. Strike, warning of consequences for the wider region that would ultimately impact the United States, a Gulf official said.

The White House said on Thursday that Trump is closely monitoring the situation on the ground and that many scheduled Iranian executions were halted. Trump has warned Tehran ​there would be "grave consequences" if killings linked to its crackdown continue.

But a cleric leading Friday prayers in Iran's capital demanded the death penalty for protesters.

Cleric Ahmad Khatami's sermon carried by Iranian state radio sparked chants from those gathered for prayers, including: "Armed hypocrites should be put to death!"

The protests erupted on Dec. 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.

Iranian authorities have accused foreign ‍enemies of fomenting it. Khatami, appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a member of both the country's Assembly of Experts and Guardian Council, hurled invectives on Friday toward Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Reza Pahlavi, exiled son of the late shah who hasn't lived in Iran since the late 1970s, has praised the protesters from the outside. Pahlavi is scheduled to speak to the protests in Washington, D.C., on Friday morning.

Pahlavi's support within Iran to help lead a transition from clerical leadership has been questioned, including by Trump.

"I don't know whether or not his country would accept his leadership, and ​certainly if they would, that would be fine with me," Trump said in a Reuters interview this week.

UN Security Council holds emergency meeting on Iran’s protests

A death toll reported by U.S.-based rights group HRANA has increased little since Wednesday, currently standing at 2,677 people, including 2,478 protesters and 163 people identified as people ​affiliated with the government. Earlier this week, a Canadian citizen was confirmed to be among those killed.

Reuters has not been able to independently verify the HRANA death toll. The casualty numbers dwarf the death toll from previous bouts of unrest that have been suppressed by the state.

Khatami provided the first overall statistics on damage from the protests, claiming 350 mosques, 126 prayer halls and 20 other holy places had sustained damage. Another 80 homes of Friday prayer leaders, as well as hundreds of first responder vehicles, had also been damaged, he said.

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, saying "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.

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 Tehran. 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.

Tasnim reported the arrest of five people accused of vandalizing a gas station and a base belonging to the Basij — a branch of the security forces often used to quell unrest — in the southeastern city of Kerman.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Iran in separate calls on Friday with Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and said that ​Moscow was willing to mediate in the region, the Kremlin said.

Russia called for a de-escalation in tensions in Iran, the Kremlin said, while Putin and Pezeshkian confirmed their commitment ⁠to a ​20-year strategic partnership agreement ​signed last ‍year, which includes joint economic projects. Russia has pursued closer ⁠ties with Iran since the start of its war in ‍Ukraine.

Any threat to ‍the survival of the Iranian leadership would pose a serious concern for Moscow, 13 months after it lost another key Middle East ally, with the toppling of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Earlier ⁠this month, another Russian ally, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, was captured by the U.S. And ​brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

While the U.S. Has said military options to intervene in Iran remain a possibility, there are currently no American aircraft carriers — considered a critical asset in any significant military operation — in the Middle East. The USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group were deployed in the fall as part of the administration's military operations that were focused on Venezuela.

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