The United States is withdrawing some personnel from bases in the Middle East, a U.S. official said on Wednesday, after a seniorĀ Iranian official said Tehran had warned neighbors it would hit American bases if Washington strikes.
WithĀ Iranās leadership trying to put down the worst domestic unrest theĀ Islamic RepublicĀ has ever faced, Tehran is seeking to deter U.S. President Donald Trumpās repeated threats to intervene on behalf of anti-government protesters.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States wasĀ withdrawing some personnelĀ from key bases in the region as a precaution given heightened regional tensions.
Two European officials said U.S. military intervention appeared likely, with one saying it could come in the next 24 hours. An Israeli official also said it appeared Trump had taken a decision to intervene, though the scope and timing had yet to be made clear.
Qatar said drawdowns from itsĀ Al Udeid air base, the biggest U.S. base in the region, were ābeing undertaken in response to the current regional tensions.ā
Three diplomats said some personnel had been told to leave the base, though there were no immediate signs of large numbers of troops being bussed out to a soccer stadium and shopping mall as took place hours before anĀ Iranian missile strikeĀ last year.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in support of protesters inĀ Iran, where thousands of people have been reported killed in a crackdown on the protests againstĀ clerical rule.
IranĀ and its Western foes have both described the unrest, which began two weeks ago as demonstrations against dire economic conditions and rapidly escalated in recent days, as the most violent since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that installedĀ Iranās system of clerical rule.
AnĀ Iranian official has said more than 2,000 people have died. A rights group put the toll at more than 2,600.
IranĀ āhad never faced this volume of destruction,ā Armed Forces Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi said on Wednesday, blaming foreign enemies.Ā French Foreign MinisterĀ Jean-Noel Barrot described āthe most violent repression inĀ Iranās contemporary history.ā
Iranian authorities have accused the United States and Israel of fomenting the unrest, carried out by people it calls armed terrorists.
IRAN ASKS REGIONAL STATES TO PREVENT A US ATTACK
Trump has openly threatened to intervene inĀ IranĀ for days, without giving specifics. In an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, he vowed āvery strong actionā ifĀ IranĀ executes protesters. He also urgedĀ Iranians to keep protesting and take over institutions, declaring āhelp is on the way.ā
The seniorĀ Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tehran had asked U.S. allies in the region to prevent Washington from attackingĀ Iran.
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āTehran has told regional countries, from Saudi Arabia and UAE to Turkey, that U.S. bases in those countries will be attackedā if the U.S. targetsĀ Iran, the official said.
Direct contacts betweenĀ Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff had been suspended, the official added.
The United States has forces across the region including the forward headquarters of its Central Command at Al Udeid in Qatar and the headquarters of the U.S. Navyās Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
GOVERNMENT DOES NOT SEEM ON VERGE OF COLLAPSE, WESTERN OFFICIAL SAYS
The flow of information from insideĀ IranĀ has been hampered by an internet blackout.
U.S.-based HRANA rights group said it had so far verified the deaths of 2,403 protesters and 147 government-affiliated individuals, dwarfing tolls from previous waves of protests crushed by the authorities in 2022 and 2009.
The governmentās prestige was severely damaged last year by a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign in June ā joined by the U.S. ā that followed setbacks forĀ Iranās regional allies in Lebanon and Syria. European countries triggered the restoration of U.N. sanctions overĀ Iranās nuclear program, worsening an economic crisis.
The unrest on such a scale had caught the authorities off guard at a vulnerable time, but it did not appear that the government faced imminent collapse, and its security apparatus was still in control, one Western official said.
The authorities have sought to project images showing they retain public support.Ā Iranian state TV broadcast footage of large funeral processions for people killed in the unrest in Tehran, Isfahan and Bushehr, and other cities. People waved flags and pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and held aloft signs with anti-riot slogans.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, an elected figure whose power is subordinate to that of Khamenei, told a cabinet meeting that as long as the government had popular support, āall the enemiesā efforts against the country will come to nothing.ā
State media reported that the head ofĀ Iranās top security body, Ali Larijani, had spoken to the foreign minister of Qatar, while Araqchi had spoken to his Emirati and Turkish counterparts. Araqchi told UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed that ācalm has prevailed.ā
Visiting a Tehran prison where arrested protesters are being held,Ā Iranās chief justice said speed in judging and penalizing those āwho beheaded or burned peopleā was critical to ensuring such events do not happen again.
HRANA reported 18,137 arrests so far.
Hengaw, anĀ Iranian Kurdish rights group, has reported a 26-year-old man, Erfan Soltani, arrested in connection with protests in the city of Karaj, was to be executed on Wednesday. The group said on Wednesday it was not able to confirm whether the sentence had been carried out.
(Reporting by Elwely Elwelly and Jana Choukeir in Dubai, Bassam Masoud in Doha, John Irish in Paris, Lili Bayer in Brussels, Bo Erickson in Detroit, Susan Heavey, Joey Roulette and Doina Chiacu in Washington, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Bhargav Acharya in TorontoWriting by Tom Perry and Peter GraffEditing by Frances Kerry, Alexandra Hudson)
