Signals possible intervention as mass protests rock Tehran, foreign interference and threats fly across the region
US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media on Air Force One en route from Florida to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US January 11, 2026. PHOTO: REUTERS
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Iran’s leadership had called on him to seek “negotiations” following his threats of military action amid mass anti-government protests in the Islamic Republic.
“The leaders of Iran called” yesterday, Trump told reporters on Air Force One, adding that “a meeting is taking place … They want to negotiate.”
However, Trump added that “maybe we have to act before a meeting.”
According to Reuters, Trump said on Sunday he was considering a range of responses to escalating unrest in Iran, including possible military options, as mass protests continue to roil the country.
Unrest in Iran has killed more than 500 people, a rights group said on Sunday, as Tehran threatened to target US military bases if Trump followed through on fresh threats to intervene on behalf of the protesters.
With the Islamic Republic’s clerical establishment facing its biggest protests since 2022, Trump has repeatedly threatened to get involved if violence is used against protesters.
According to its latest figures – from activists inside and outside Iran – US human rights group HRANA said it had verified the deaths of 490 protesters and 48 security personnel, with more than 10,600 people arrested in two weeks of unrest.
Iran has not given an official account and Reuters could not independently verify the accounts.
Trump was to meet with senior advisers on Tuesday to discuss options on Iran, a US official told Reuters on Sunday. The Wall Street Journal had reported that options include military strikes, using secret cyber weapons, expanding sanctions and providing online assistance to anti-government sources.
“The military is looking at it and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday night.
Trump said he was in contact with Iranian opposition leaders. He also said, without elaborating, that Iran’s leaders called him on Saturday and wanted to negotiate and that he could talk to them.
The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bakr Qalibaf, warned Washington of a “miscalculation”.
“Let’s be clear: in the event of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories (of Israel) as well as all US bases and ships will be our legitimate target,” said Qalibaf, a former commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.
The authorities intensify the repression
The protests began on December 28 in response to price gouging, before turning against the clerical rulers who have ruled since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iranian authorities accused the US and Israel of fomenting trouble and called for a national rally on Monday to condemn “terrorist actions led by the United States and Israel”, Iranian media reported.
The flow of information from Iran has been hampered by an internet blackout since Thursday. Trump said on Sunday that he would speak with Elon Musk about restoring Internet access to Iran through his Starlink satellite service.
Footage posted on social media on Saturday from Tehran showed large crowds marching at night, clapping and shouting. The crowd “has no end or beginning,” one man is heard saying.
Footage from the northeastern city of Mashhad showed smoke rising into the night sky from street fires, masked protesters and a road littered with debris, another video posted on Saturday showed. Explosions were heard.
State television showed dozens of body bags on the ground at the Tehran coroner’s office, saying the dead were victims of incidents caused by “armed terrorists,” as well as footage of loved ones gathered outside the Kahrizak Forensic Center in Tehran waiting to identify the bodies.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was shocked by reports of violence by Iranian authorities and called for maximum restraint. “The rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly must be fully respected and protected,” he told X.
Authorities on Sunday declared three days of national mourning “in honor of the martyrs killed in the resistance against the United States and the Zionist regime,” according to state media.
Three Israeli sources, who were present at Israeli security consultations over the weekend, said Israel is on high alert for the possibility of any US intervention.
Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war in June 2025, which was briefly joined by the United States attacking nuclear facilities. Iran responded by firing missiles at Israel and a US airbase in Qatar.
“Interns and Terrorists”
While Iranian authorities have shrugged off previous protests, the latest has unfolded with Tehran still reeling from last year’s war and its regional position weakened by blows to allies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah since the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.
Iran’s turmoil comes as Trump aggressively imposes US power on foreign nations, having ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and discussing acquiring Greenland by purchase or force.
Iranian President Massoud Pezheskian said Israel and the US are masterminding the destabilization and that Iran’s enemies have brought “terrorists … who set fire to mosques … attack banks and public property.”
“Families, I am asking you: do not allow your young children to join rioters and terrorists who behead people and kill others,” he said in a television interview, adding that the government is ready to listen to the people and solve economic problems.
Iran summoned Britain’s ambassador to the foreign ministry on Sunday over “intrusive comments” attributed to the British foreign secretary and a protester who removed the Iranian flag from the London embassy building and replaced it with a style of flag used before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Britain’s Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alan Eyre, a former US diplomat and Iran expert, thought the protests unlikely to topple the establishment.
“I think it’s more likely that he will stop these protests eventually, but come out of the process much weaker,” he told Reuters, noting that Iran’s elite still appears cohesive and there is no organized opposition.
Iran’s state television broadcast funeral processions in western cities such as Ghassaran and Yasuj for security personnel killed in protests.
State television said 30 members of the security forces would be buried in the central city of Isfahan and that another six were killed in “riots” in Kermanshah to the west.
The US is ready to help, Trump says
Trump, posting on social media on Saturday, said: “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, maybe like never before. USA is ready to help!!!”
In a phone call on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the possibility of US intervention in Iran, according to an Israeli source present for the conversation.
Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah and a prominent voice in the fractured opposition, said Trump had observed the “indescribable bravery of Iranians.” “Don’t leave the streets,” Pahlavi, who is based in the US, wrote on X.
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