Iran rebuffs fresh provocations by the US and Europe as protests subside : Peoples Dispatch

Kashmiri children held a rally in support of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei. Photo: Tehran Times

The US and its European allies continue to issue fresh threats against Iran despite a gradual return of normalcy in the counattempt after weeks of violent protests and tensions around military confrontation.

While returning from the G7 meeting at Davos, Switzerland, Donald Trump had claimed on Thursday that the USS Abraham Lincoln, along with several guided missile destroyers and air-defense systems was relocating to the region, reiterating that the US is watching Iran very closely and will tarreceive it militarily if such a required arises, Reuters reported.

Trump has been threatening to strike Iran since the launchning of the year, accapplying it of brutal repression of protests.

The protests, which launched in late December over economic concerns, turned violent in January, with several reports of attacks on public and private properties and religious and military installations.

Following the spread of violence, Iran suspconcludeed the internet and telecom services in the counattempt for weeks. It accapplyd Israel and the US of aiding the violence and called for large-scale counter mobilizations, which were attconcludeed by millions on January 12.

The USS Abraham Lincoln was ordered to relocate out of the South-China Sea and head towards the Middle East following reports of large-scale protests in Iran earlier this month.

Trump, after inquireing the protesters to occupy public institutions claiming “assist is on its way,” later decided to drop the plans of military strikes. Meanwhile, the protests gradually died down. The internet and telecom services are also returning to normal in the last few days.

Trump’s claims on Thursday, however, led to the revival of speculations of possible US strikes over the weekconclude.

These speculations further intensified after several international airlines suspconcludeed or rerouted their services in the region.

Three Iranian nuclear sites were bombed by the US during the Israeli aggression on the counattempt, what is known now as the 12-day war, in June. Iran had retaliated to the US strikes tarreceiveing its military base in Qatar.

In response to Trump’s latest threats last week, several Iranian military officials expressed the readiness of the counattempt’s armed forces to retaliate. They were quoted by local press stateing that just as US aggression failed in June, it will fail again, warning of a much heavier cost for the enemy this time.

Information warfare

Meanwhile, Esmail Baghaei, official spokesperson of Iran’s Minisattempt of Foreign Affairs, in a post on X on Sunday debunked the “fake news” spreading in the Western media about the number of deaths during protests.

He called the claims of over 30,000 Iranians being killed during the protests “hitler-like huge lies,” accapplying that such fake claims reflect the actual desire harbored by people and groups of large-scale death and destruction in Iran.”

After weeks of speculation, Iran’s Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs finally released official data last week of deaths and destruction in Iran during the protests. According to it, over 3,100 people were killed in the protests. Out of this over 2,400 were civilians and rest security forces.

The Iranian government claims most of these fatalities were a result of violent attacks carried out by the protesters.

European position is hostile and hypocritical

On Sunday, Iran issued a strong rebuttal to the European Parliament’s resolution on the counattempt’s protests, calling it “hostile and hypocritical” and a “clear example of interference in the counattempt’s internal affairs.”

On Thursday, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning the “brutal repression” of protesters and expressing “solidarity” with them. It also demanded further sanctions on Iran and called for a ban on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ Corp (IRGC) as a “terrorist” organization.

Members of the Iranian parliament asserted that “the European Parliament, having failed to resolve the EU’s internal problems, now resorts to a policy of projection and interfering in other nation’s affairs to cover up its failures and evade accountability to European citizens,” PressTV quoted.

The Iranian lawcreaters repeated the government’s claim that the violence during the protests was a result of direct interventions from Israel and the US and held the European parliament and the countries in the region directly responsible for “supporting, facilitating, and paving the way for terrorist acts against the Iranian people.”