Iran warns against US strikes as activists say protest death toll reaches 203

Iran’s parliament speaker warned Sunday that the United States military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if the US strikes the Islamic Republic over the ongoing protests roiling the country. US President Donald Trump has threatened action.

At least 203 people have died in violence surrounding the demonstrations, activists said, with fears the death toll is far higher.

Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf made the warning after nationwide protests challenging Iran’s theocracy saw protesters flood the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city into Sunday morning, crossing the two-week mark.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran's security services to launch a bloody crackdown.

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Trump offered support for the protesters, saying on social media that “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous US officials, said on Saturday night that Trump had been given military options for a strike on Iran, but hadn’t made a final decision.

Iranian state television broadcast the parliament session live. Speaker Qalibaf, a hard-liner who has run for the presidency in the past, gave a speech applauding police and Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, particularly its all-volunteer Basij, for having “stood firm” during the protests.

He went on to directly threaten Israel, “the occupied territory” as he referred to it, and the U.S. military, possibly with a preemptive strike.

“In the event of an attack on Iran, both the occupied territory and all American military centers, bases and ships in the region will be our legitimate targets,” Qalibaf said. “We do not consider ourselves limited to reacting after the action and will act based on any objective signs of a threat.”

Lawmakers rushed the dais in the Iranian parliament, shouting: “Death to America!”

It remains unclear just how serious Iran is about launching a strike, particularly after its air defenses were destroyed during the 12-day war in June with Israel. Any decision to go to war would rest with Iran's 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The US military has said in the Mideast it is “postured with forces that span the full range of combat capability to defend our forces, our partners and allies and US interests.” Iran targeted US forces at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar back in June, while the US Navy's Mideast-based 5th Fleet is stationed in the island kingdom of Bahrain.

Israel, meanwhile, is “watching closely” the situation between the US and Iran, said an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to not being authorized to speak to journalists. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio overnight on topics including Iran, the official added.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which relies on activists in Iran cross-checking information, offered the new death toll of 203 on Sunday, a large jump.

Of those killed, 162 are protesters and 41 are members of the security forces, it said. The agency also acknowledged receiving claims of far more deaths that it was still assessing as over 3,280 others have been arrested.

The group has offered accurate tolls in previous rounds of unrest in the Islamic Republic. The Iranian government has not offered any overall casualty figures for the demonstrations.

The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll, as communications with Iran have been cut.

At the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV mentioned Iran as a place "where ongoing tensions continue to claim many lives."

“I hope and pray that dialogue and peace may be patiently nurtured in pursuit of the common good of the whole of society,” he said.