Washington: US President Donald Trump said he was cancelling US talks with Iranian officials due to the regime’s wonton killing of protesters, with as many as 2000 now reported dead as the Islamic dictatorship attempts to suppress the largest uprising in many years.
Trump, who is actively considering US military intervention, encouraged anti-government demonstrators to persevere, urging them to “take over your institutions” and promising: “Help is on its way.”
“Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price,” Trump said in a social media post on Tuesday morning, US time. “I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS.”
The White House had as recently as yesterday indicated a preference for diplomacy, while keeping military options on the table, including air strikes against regime targets.
Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday (AEDT) that diplomacy was “always the first option for the president”, and that Tehran was privately delivering a different message to the administration from its hard-headed public rhetoric. “I think the president has an interest in exploring those messages,” Leavitt said.
But Trump’s move to pause diplomatic efforts and promise “help” for demonstrators could indicate a hardening of his resolve, particularly as certain figures in Washington urge him to intervene using the US military.
Lindsey Graham, an interventionist Republican senator from South Carolina, said decisive action by Trump would be the tipping point for the Iranian regime and a death blow for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
“A massive wave of military, cyber and psychological attacks is the meat and bones of ‘help is on the way’,” Graham said on X. “What am I looking for? Destroy the infrastructure that allows the massacre and slaughter of the Iranian people, and take down the leaders responsible for the killing.”
Reuters reported overnight that an Iranian official said about 2000 people had been killed so far during the protests, broadly matching claims by activists. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the United Nations human rights office said it was hearing the number was in the hundreds, citing sources in Iran.
The Islamic regime has cut off internet access in Iran and is attempting to jam Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service, which protesters have been using to organise and communicate with the outside world. That makes assessing the death toll and full scale of the demonstrations difficult.
Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince and son of the deposed shah of Iran, is also among those urging Trump to intervene militarily.
“The level of massacre has been unbelievable. The regime is, with no pity, using military machinery – AK-47s – to shoot to death protesters. Morgues are overfilled,” he told Fox News.
“The decisive element that everybody’s waiting for is: when will the cavalry arrive? Part of the reason they are still on the street fighting is they believe that this president is committed to do what he promised he will.”
Vice President JD Vance rejected a report in The Wall Street Journal that suggested he was trying to convince Trump to pursue a diplomatic solution instead of using force, in contrast to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Vance’s aide William Martin released a statement saying Vance and Rubio were together presenting a suite of diplomatic and military options to the president, “without bias or favour”.
Trump has already threatened 25 per cent tariffs on any country doing business with Iran, including China, which is the largest buyer of Iranian oil.
In Europe, governments summoned Iranian ambassadors to account for the regime’s brutality against its own people. The German Foreign Office called the Islamic Republic’s actions “shocking” in a statement on X.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the United Kingdom was preparing new sanctions that targeted Iranian finance, energy, transport, software and other industries.
“This latest conduct by the Iranian regime is no aberration. It is no outlier. It is all too in keeping with the fundamental nature and track record of this regime,” Cooper told the House of Commons.
“Just as they did in 2022, it is absolutely clear that the Iranian regime are trying to paint these protests as the result of foreign influence and instigation.
“They are using that accusation to try and whip up opposition to the protests amongst anti-western Iranians, and to try and justify their vicious and sickening attacks on the ordinary civilians marching in the streets.”
The US, which has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since 1980, and already warns Americans against travelling to the country, issued an alert saying US citizens in Iran should consider departing to Armenia or Turkey if safe to do so.
Trump was expected to be briefed on Iran later on Wednesday (AEDT) after returning to Washington from Detroit, where is speaking about the US economy.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via Twitter or email.
