U.S. President Donald Trump stated that a “large fleet” of U.S. naval forces is heading toward Iran and that Washington is “watching” the country closely. “We have a large force heading toward Iran. I would rather not see anything happen, we are watching them very carefully… We have an armada, we have a massive fleet heading in that direction,” Trump told reporters during a flight aboard the presidential aircraft, in a video released by the White House.
Trump added that he “may not have to” use the fleet, and that this has not yet been determined. When asked by reporters whether he would want Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei to leave office or go into exile, Trump said that he does not want to get into that at the moment. “There is a lot of killing there,” Trump stated.
He added that he is not backing away from tariffs on companies that do business with Iran. “If you do business with Iran, you will have a 25 percent tariff,” Trump said, Beta reports.
Iran’s chief prosecutor Mohammad Movahedi yesterday denied the claim by U.S. President Donald Trump that his intervention stopped the execution of 800 people detained during protests across the country, calling such claims “completely inaccurate.” Iran’s judiciary news agency Mizan conveyed Movahedi’s statement, which once again calls into question the possibility of mass executions in connection with protests throughout the country, AP reports.
Trump stated that mass executions and the killing of peaceful demonstrators are “red lines” for a potential U.S. military strike on Iran, Tanjug reports.
According to activists, the number of people killed in clashes between authorities and demonstrators across Iran has risen to at least 5,002. This death toll exceeds that of any other wave of protests or unrest in Iran over the past several decades and recalls the situation that accompanied the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the U.S. agency reports. The Iranian government on Wednesday released the first official death toll, stating that 3,117 people were killed. It added that among those killed in the demonstrations that began on December 28 were 2,427 civilians and members of the security forces, while the rest were labeled as “terrorists.”
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Source: Politika, Foto: AP Photo / Evan Vucci