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Iran's Top Diplomat Issues US Threat 01/21 06:19
Iran's foreign minister issued the most direct threat yet Wednesday against
the United States after Tehran's bloody crackdown on protesters, warning the
Islamic Republic will be "firing back with everything we have if we come under
renewed attack."
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iran's foreign minister issued the most
direct threat yet Wednesday against the United States after Tehran's bloody
crackdown on protesters, warning the Islamic Republic will be "firing back with
everything we have if we come under renewed attack."
The comments by Abbas Araghchi, who saw his invitation to the World Economic
Forum in Davos rescinded over the killings, comes as an American aircraft
carrier group moves westward toward the Middle East from Asia. American fighter
jets and other equipment appears to be moving in the Mideast after a major U.S.
military deployment in the Caribbean saw troops seize Venezuela's Nicols
Maduro.
Meanwhile, an Iranian Kurdish separatist group in Iraq claimed Iran targeted
one of its bases in a drone and missile attack that killed at least one
fighter. Iran did not immediately acknowledge the attack, which would be the
first foreign operation Tehran has launched since the protests started.
Araghchi makes threat in column
Araghchi made the threat in an opinion article published by The Wall Street
Journal. In it, the foreign minister contended "the violent phase of the unrest
lasted less than 72 hours" and sought again to blame armed demonstrators for
the violence. Videos that have slipped out of Iran despite an internet shutdown
appear to show security forces repeatedly using live fire to target apparently
unarmed protesters, something unaddressed by Araghchi.
"Unlike the restraint Iran showed in June 2025, our powerful armed forces
have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under
renewed attack," Araghchi wrote, referring to the 12-day war launched by Israel
on Iran in June. "This isn't a threat, but a reality I feel I need to convey
explicitly, because as a diplomat and a veteran, I abhor war."
He added: "An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on
far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are
trying to peddle to the White House. It will certainly engulf the wider region
and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe."
Araghchi's comments likely refer to Iran's short- and medium-range missiles.
The Islamic Republic relied on ballistic missiles to target Israel in the war
and left its stockpile of the shorter-range missiles unused, something that
could be fired to target American bases and interests in the Persian Gulf.
Already, there have been some restrictions on U.S. diplomats traveling to
American bases in both Kuwait and Qatar.
Mideast nations, particularly diplomats from Gulf Arab countries, had
lobbied Trump not to attack. Last week, Iran shut its airspace, likely in
anticipation of a strike.
The USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been in the South China Sea in recent
days, had passed through the Strait of Malacca, a key waterway connecting the
South China Sea and Indian Ocean, by Tuesday, ship-tracking data showed.
A U.S. Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aircraft
carrier and three accompanying destroyers were heading west.
While naval and other defense officials stopped short of saying the carrier
strike group was headed to the Middle East, its current heading and location in
the Indian Ocean means it is only days away from moving into the region.
Meanwhile, U.S. military images released in recent days showed F-15E Strike
Eagles arriving in the Mideast and forces in the region moving a HIMARS missile
system, the type used with great success by Ukraine after Russia's full-scale
invasion in the country in 2022.
Kurdish exiles claim Iranian attack in Iraq
The National Army of Kurdistan, the armed wing of the Kurdistan Freedom
Party, or PAK, claimed Iran launched an attack against one of its bases near
Irbil, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Baghdad. It said one fighter
had been killed, releasing mobile phone footage of a fire in the predawn
darkness.
Iranian state television, which has confirmed attacks on the group in the
past, did not acknowledge the assault.
A handful of Iranian Kurdish dissident or separatist groups -- some with
armed wings -- have long found a safe haven in northern Iraq's semiautonomous
Kurdish region, where their presence has been a point of friction between the
central government in Baghdad and Tehran. The PAK has claimed it launched
attacks in Iran as a crackdown on the demonstrations took place, something
reported by semiofficial Iranian news agencies as well.
Protest death toll rises
The death toll from the protests has reached at least 4,519 people, the
U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said. The agency has been
accurate throughout the years on demonstrations and unrest in Iran, relying on
a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported
fatalities. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the
death toll.
The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran
in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution that brought
the Islamic Republic into being. Although there have been no protests for days,
there are fears the death toll could increase significantly as information
gradually emerges from a country still under a government-imposed shutdown of
the internet since Jan. 8.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that the
protests had left "several thousand" people dead and blamed the United States.
It was the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the
casualties.
More than 26,300 people have been arrested, according to the Human Rights
Activists News Agency. Comments from officials have led to fears of some of
those detained being put to death in Iran, one of the world's top executioners.
That and the killing of peaceful protesters have been two red lines laid down
by Trump in the tensions.
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