WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Sunday that Iran\u2019s leadership had called him seeking \u201cto negotiate\u201d after he repeatedly threatened to intervene militarily if Tehran killed protesters.<\/p>\n
For two weeks, Iran has been rocked by a protest movement that has swelled in spite of a crackdown rights groups warn has become a \u201cmassacre.\u201d<\/p>\n
Initially sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, the demonstrations have evolved into a serious challenge of the theocratic system in place since the 1979 revolution.<\/p>\n
Information has continued to trickle out of Iran despite a days-long Internet shutdown, with videos filtering out of capital Tehran and other cities over the past three nights showing large demonstrations.<\/p>\n
As reports emerge of a growing protest death toll, and images show bodies piled outside a morgue, Trump said Tehran indicated its willingness to talk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe leaders of Iran called\u201d yesterday, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that \u201ca meeting is being set up… They want to negotiate.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, however, that \u201cwe may have to act before a meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said it had received \u201ceyewitness accounts and credible reports indicating that hundreds of protesters have been killed across Iran during the current Internet shutdown.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA massacre is unfolding,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it confirmed the killing of at least 192 protesters but that the actual toll could be much higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnverified reports indicate that at least several hundreds, and according to some sources, more than 2,000 people may have been killed,\u201d said IHR.<\/p>\n
More than 2,600 protesters have been arrested, IHR estimates.<\/p>\n
A video circulating on Sunday showed dozens of bodies accumulating outside a morgue south of Tehran.<\/p>\n
The footage, geolocated by AFP to Kahrizak, showed bodies wrapped in black bags, with what appeared to be grieving relatives searching for loved ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Sunday that Iran\u2019s leadership had called him seeking \u201cto negotiate\u201d after he repeatedly threatened to intervene militarily if Tehran killed protesters. For two weeks, Iran has been rocked by a protest movement that has swelled in spite of a crackdown rights groups warn has become a \u201cmassacre.\u201d Initially sparked …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":92151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92152,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92132\/revisions\/92152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}