‘I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,’ President Donald Trump says.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Jan. 11 that Iran’s leadership has contacted his administration to seek negotiations after he warned of possible military action in the wake of mass protests in Iran.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that Iranian leaders had reached out to U.S. officials and that a meeting between the two sides was being set up.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” he said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
Trump warned that the United States “may have to act” before a potential meeting takes place because of the current situation in Iran, as the Iranian regime’s clampdown on protests has left hundreds dead.
“There seem to be some people killed that aren’t supposed to be killed,“ he said. ”These are violent, if you call them leaders. I don’t know if their leaders are just. … They rule through violence. But we’re looking at it very seriously.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options. We’ll make a determination.”
When asked about Iran’s threatened response to a U.S. strike, Trump said any such actions would be met with “a powerful force.”
“If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before. And they won’t even believe it. I have options that are so strong,” he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has blamed the United States for escalating the protests, saying they were made “violent, bloody to give an excuse” for Trump to intervene. He said the protests were “infiltrated by terrorist operatives and terrorist groups.”
“We have recorded audio messages received by those terrorist operatives, giving them orders to fire on protesters, to fire on the security and police personnel, to fire on peaceful civilians, to fire on anyone coming their way, women, men, young or old,” Araghchi said.
“Their goal is to kill the highest possible number. As a result, many were killed in these violent demonstrations. And a living proof of this is that many of those killed received gunshots from behind. … They cut the throats of some security personnel. They burned others alive.
“These are ISIS practices. At the same time, they started to wreak destruction in public and private property, targeting governmental institutions, police stations, even residential homes and commercial shops.”
Araghchi made the remarks during a Jan. 11 meeting with foreign diplomats, broadcast by Al-Jazeera, in which he claimed that the situation “has come under total control” but gave no evidence.
“The security personnel were deployed, stood up, and confronted the terrorist operatives infiltrating the demonstrations,” he said.
At least 544 people have died and about 10,681 others have been detained in Iran’s nationwide protests as of Jan. 11, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which relies on supporters in Iran to cross-check its information.
Of those fatalities, HRANA said that at least 483 were protesters and 47 were law enforcement forces. The protests have now spread to all 31 provinces as they entered the 15th day. HRANA said it was investigating hundreds more reports of people feared dead.
Trump had earlier warned that the U.S. military would intervene if the Iranian regime escalates the use of lethal force against protesters.
“If Iran [shoots] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” he stated on Truth Social on Jan. 2.
The president reiterated on Jan. 10 that the United States is “ready to help,” spurring strong condemnations from Iran’s political elite.
