Trump leaning toward using force as Vance urges talks — WSJ

US says diplomacy with Iran the ‘first option’ as toll in protests rises to 648

Tehran’s foreign minister speaks to Trump envoy Witkoff in de-escalation attempt; Islamic Republic insists it is ‘not seeking war,’ but is ‘prepared’

The death toll in the anti-regime protests that have taken Iran by storm over the past two weeks hit 648, an activist group said Monday evening, as Tehran staged major pro-regime rallies and reportedly reached out to the US to de-escalate tensions amid President Donald Trump’s repeated threats of intervention if large numbers of protesters are killed.

The latest tally was reported Monday by Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), which said the actual toll could be far higher.

“The international community has a duty to protect civilian protesters against mass killing by the Islamic Republic,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

IHR said that “according to some estimates, more than 6,000 may have been killed,” but warned that the almost four-day internet blackout imposed by the Iranian authorities makes it “extremely difficult to independently verify these reports.”

According to Israeli defense officials speaking with Axios, Israel’s intelligence agencies estimate that the real death toll has likely passed 1,000.

More than 10,600 people have also been detained over the two weeks of protests, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations and the casualty and arrest figures from abroad has grown more difficult. International news agencies have been unable to independently assess the toll, and Iran’s government hasn’t offered overall casualty figures.

Iran FM, Witkoff spoke over weekend — report

Amid the rising toll and increased tensions with the US over Trump’s repeated threats, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reportedly reached out to the president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff over the weekend to discuss the protests.

Citing sources with knowledge of the matter, Axios reported that Araghchi’s outreach appeared to be an effort by Tehran to defuse tensions with the United States or delay potential American strikes that Trump has threatened in response to the deadly crackdown on the demonstrations.

One of the sources added that Witkoff and Araghchi discussed a possible sit-down in the coming days.

The sources quoted in the report did not specify if the two spoke by phone or text, and the US State Department and White House both declined to comment.

“The communication channel between our Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and the US special envoy is open and messages are exchanged whenever necessary,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Monday.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is not seeking war but is fully prepared for war,” Araghchi told a conference of foreign ambassadors in Tehran broadcast by state television. “We are also ready for negotiations but these negotiations should be fair, with equal rights and based on mutual respect.”

The top diplomat insisted that “the situation has come under total control,” in remarks that blamed Israel and the US for the violence, without offering evidence. He said internet service would be resumed in coordination with security authorities, though as of Monday evening, all telecommunications remained shut down.

“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 for over four days.

White House says diplomacy is ‘first option’

Responding to Iran’s comments, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Monday that Tehran’s public messages are “quite different” from the ones it is sending the US privately.

“President Trump has always expressed that diplomacy is the first option,” she told Fox News. “However, he is unafraid to use the lethal force and might of the United States military if and when he deems that necessary. Nobody knows that better than the Iranian regime.”

“The greatest leverage the regime had just several months ago was their nuclear program, which President Trump and the United States military totally obliterated,” Leavitt continued, adding that only Trump knows what course of action he’ll end up taking.

“The world will have to keep waiting and guessing, and we will let him decide,” she said.

Taking questions on the White House lawn after her interview with Fox News, Leavitt told reporters: “Airstrikes would be one of the many, many options that are on the table.”

But she added, “Diplomacy is always the first option for the president.”

A day earlier, Trump said that Iran had reached out and proposed negotiations to quell his repeated threats, while noting that the US is “looking at some very strong options” and discussing its military options.

US Vice President JD Vance is leading the push among a group of senior administration officials for Trump to give diplomatic talks with Iran a chance before taking military action, The Wall Street Journal reported.

American officials quoted by the newspaper said Trump hasn’t yet made up his mind but currently leans toward striking Iran, though he could shift course. Some of the officials said Trump may attack first and then look to hold talks with the Islamic Republic.

Despite Vance’s push for diplomacy, a person familiar with his thinking said the vice president is open to bombing Iran and views the country as a threat to the United States.

Pro-regime protests staged in Tehran, other cities

Grappling with both the protests and the threats from the US, Iranian authorities on Monday sought to regain control of the streets with mass nationwide rallies in support of the regime, and to try to show the world that much of the country still backs the theocratic government that has reportedly killed at least 600 protesters in the past two weeks.

At the main pro-regime rally, thousands of people filled the capital’s Enghelab (Revolution) Square brandishing the national flag as prayers were read for victims of what the government has termed “riots,” state TV showed.

Addressing the crowds, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran is fighting a “four-front war,” listing economic war, psychological war, “military war” with the United States and Israel and “today a war against terrorists,” referring to the protests.

Flanked by the slogans “Death to Israel, Death to America” in Persian, he vowed the Iranian military would teach Trump “an unforgettable lesson” if Iran were attacked.

After the rallies, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the turnout was a “warning” to the US.

“This was a warning to American politicians to stop their deceit and not rely on treacherous mercenaries,” he said, according to Iranian state TV. “These massive rallies, full of determination, have thwarted the plan of foreign enemies that were supposed to be carried out by domestic mercenaries.”

Iran summons European envoys over protest support

Meanwhile, the ambassadors of Britain, Italy, Germany and France in Tehran were summoned to the Iranian foreign ministry, semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, and asked to relay to their governments Tehran’s request to withdraw their support for the protests.

Iran considers any political or media support for the protests “an unacceptable intervention in the internal security of the country,” Tasnim added.

A French diplomatic source said the ambassadors had strongly expressed their concerns, and President Emmanuel Macron on Monday again condemned Iran’s violent crackdown on the protests.

“Respect for fundamental freedoms is a universal requirement, and we stand alongside those who defend them,” Macron wrote on social media platform X.

Macron had already condemned the killing of protesters on Friday in a joint statement with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Also doubling down on his criticism, Merz said on Monday that Iran’s use of “disproportionate and brutal violence” against protesters was “a sign of weakness”.

“We condemn this violence in the strongest possible terms,” Merz said during a visit to India. “This violence is not an expression of strength, but rather a sign of weakness. This violence must end.”

In Berlin, a foreign ministry spokesman said Germany continues to push for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be “listed under the EU’s anti-terror sanctions regime.”

He said Berlin is “working within the EU to achieve consensus” on imposing the sanctions on the IRGC, the ideological arm of Iran’s military.

Germany also condemned efforts by the Iranian government to block access to the internet amid the protests.

“The de facto shutdown of the internet — a crucial foundation for freedom of expression and information, and also a vital platform for networking in the context of freedom of assembly — is reprehensible,” the spokesman said. “Any measures that can be taken to enable internet access, including in ways that bypass the regime, would be welcome.”

Tehran-ally Russia, for its part, slammed what it called attempts by “foreign powers” to interfere in Iran, state media reported, in Moscow’s first reaction to the protests.