Trump Says Iran Wants To Negotiate As The Death Toll In Protests Rises To At Least 646
HuffPost
Trump says Iran wants to negotiate with the U.S. after his threat to strike the country over its crackdown on protesters.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its crackdown on protestersthat activists said had killed at least 646 people.
Iran had no direct reaction to Trump’s comments, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to foreign diplomats in Tehran, insisted “the situation has come under total control” in remarks that blamed Israel and the U.S. 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 Al Jazeera. The Qatar-funded network has been allowed to report live from inside Iran, despite the internet being shut off.
However, Araghchi said Iran was “open to diplomacy.” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said that a channel to the U.S. 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.”
The protests, have become the biggest in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations.
With the capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump and his allies are calling the audacious U.S. military operation an unqualified success.
The Venezuelan government called it an “imperialist attack” and urged citizens to take to the streets.
The Coast Guard said it had deployed helicopters and a large vessel called a cutter to help with the search.
Forty people were killed and another 119 injured at a Swiss ski resort on New Year’s Eve.
The deaths may mark the start of a heavier-handed response by Iran’s theocracy over the demonstrations.
Axel Clavier, a 16-year-old from Paris who survived the blaze, described “total chaos” inside the bar.
Russian President Vladimir Putin used his annual televised New Year's address to rally his troops fighting in Ukraine.