DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, a force that has been instrumental in quelling recent nationwide protests in a crackdown that has left thousands dead, is “more ready than ever, with its finger on the trigger,” its commander said Saturday as U.S. warships steamed toward the Middle East.
Nournews, a news outlet close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reported on its Telegram channel that the commander, General Mohammad Pakpour, warned the United States and Israel to “avoid any miscalculation.”
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and dear Iran are more ready than ever with their finger on the trigger to execute the orders and directives of the Commander-in-Chief,” Nournews quoted Pakpour as saying.
Tensions remain high between Iran and the US after a bloody crackdown on protests that began on December 28, sparked by the collapse of Iran’s rial currency, gripped the country for about two weeks.
Trump’s warnings
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned Tehran, setting two red lines for the use of military force: the killing of peaceful demonstrators and the mass execution of people arrested during protests.
Trump has repeatedly said that Iran has halted the execution of 800 people detained during the protests. He did not elaborate on the source of the claim – which Iran’s chief prosecutor, Mohammad Movahedi, strongly denied on Friday in comments carried by the judiciary’s Mizan news agency.
On Thursday, Trump said aboard Air Force One that the US is moving warships to Iran “in case” it wants to take action.
“We have a massive fleet heading that way, and we may not have to use it,” Trump said.
A US Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements, said Thursday that the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other warships traveling with it were in the Indian Ocean.
Trump also mentioned the multiple rounds of talks US officials had with Iran over its nuclear program before Israel launched a 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in June, in which US warplanes also bombed Iranian nuclear sites. He threatened Iran with military action that would make previous US strikes against Iran’s uranium enrichment sites “look like peanuts”.
“They should have made a deal before we hit them,” Trump said.
The nervousness of the airline
The tension has prompted at least two European airlines to suspend some flights to the wider region.
Air France canceled two return flights from Paris to Dubai over the weekend. The airline said it “closely follows developments in the Middle East in real time and continuously monitors the geopolitical situation in the territories served and flown by its aircraft to ensure the highest level of flight safety and security”. It said it would resume its service to Dubai later on Saturday.
Luxair said it had delayed its Saturday flight from Luxembourg to Dubai by 24 hours “in light of the tensions and insecurity affecting the airspace in the region and in line with measures taken by several other airlines”.
It told the AP it was closely monitoring the situation “and a decision on whether the flight will operate tomorrow will be made based on the ongoing assessment.”
Arrivals information at Dubai International Airport also showed the cancellation of Saturday flights from Amsterdam by Dutch carriers KLM and Transavia. The airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Some KLM flights to Tel Aviv in Israel were also canceled on Friday and Saturday, according to online flight trackers.
Death toll rising
While there have been no further demonstrations in Iran for several days, the death toll reported by activists has continued to rise as information trickles out, despite the largest internet blackout in Iran’s history, which has now lasted more than two weeks.
The US-based news agency Human Rights Activists put the death toll at 5,137 on Saturday, with the number expected to rise. More than 27,700 people were arrested, the statement said.
The group’s figures have been accurate in previous unrest and rely on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths. The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protests or unrest there in decades and is reminiscent of the chaos surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Iranian government provided the first death toll on Wednesday, saying 3,117 people had been killed. It said 2,427 were civilians and security forces and labeled the rest as “terrorists”. In the past, the Iranian theocracy has underestimated or underreported deaths from unrest.
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Associated Press Writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, Samuel Petrequin in Paris, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Constantin and Amer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.