DONALD Trump could decide to launch a military blitz on Iran as soon as tomorrow – after the Ayatollah’s crumbling regime today declared it is ready for war.
The US president will be briefed on specific options on Tuesday and could opt for military action despite Iran’s teetering regime pleading with him to negotiate.
Trump has threatened to use military force on Tehran in order to restore peace after the government ordered a deadly crackdown on civilian protests.
More than 500 protesters have now been killed by the Ayatollah’s ruthless security forces, according to US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
Footage shows dozens of body bags piled up outside a coroner’s office in Tehran as people form queues to identify the bodies of their loved ones.
Almost 11,000 people have been arrested across IranHRANA added.
ON THE BRINK
Trump says Iran is close to ‘red line’ as protesters’ bodies pile up
GUNNED DOWN
Iran student, 23, ‘shot in head’ as family ‘forced to search through bodies’
Protests began with shopkeepers over soaring inflation but have since dramatically turned towards forcing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei out of power.
Trump revealed Tehran had phoned him at the weekend urging him to give diplomacy a chance after days of fiery protests.
He said a meeting is being set up but it could be too late due to the devastation across the nation.
Trump said: “We may have to act before a meeting. The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options.
“The leaders of Iran, they want to negotiate. I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States.”
Iran responded by vowing to target American military and commercial sites if Washington hit them first as Tehran’s Foreign Minister said they were prepared for war.
Such an attack would be met with a crushing response, warned Trump.
He said: “We will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
Despite Iran’s use of back channels to try and persuade Washington not to pull the trigger, the country’s Supreme Leader ratcheted up tensions on social media.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei posted a cartoon of a crumbling statue of the American president.
He followed up in a statement: “Let that fellow who sits there with arrogance and pridejudging the whole world, also know that the tyrants and the arrogant of this world were overthrown when they were at the height of their pride; he too will be overthrown.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi added: “The Islamic Republic of Iran is not seeking war but is fully prepared for war.”
The war of words came as the protests – which have taken place at 585 locations in 186 cities in all of Iran’s 31 provinces – entered a third week.
At least 544 people have been killed, including eight children, with 10,681 arrested, among them 169 youngsters.
The internet blackout, imposed by the desperate regime to try and quell the street protests, has now lasted more than three days.
As well as using deadly force, the Iranian government has responded by arranging counter protests of its own.
The population was flooded with text messages over the weekend, urging them to join pro-regime marches.
A number were taking place today across the country including in the cities of Kerman, in central Iran, and Zahedan, close to the Pakistani border in the east, as well the capital Tehran.
People were carrying images of Ayatollah Khamenei, holding copies of the Quran and waving Islamic Republic flags as they chanted “Death to America,” according to state-run media.
Protester Mohammad Ali Abbasi, of Tehran, said: “I’m here today to honour the blood of our martyrs and to tell our Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, that we will not allow Americans and Zionists to succeed in their dirty war against our country.”
In a further sign of escalation, other countries weighed in on both sides, urging America to stay out of Iran’s internal disputes – but also condemning Tehran for its brutal crackdown.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing “always opposes interference in other countries’ internal affairs and opposes the use or threat of use of force in international relations.”
But German Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned “in the strongest terms the violence that the leadership in Iran is directing against its own people.”
He added: “This violence must end.”
Canada said it “stands with the brave people of Iran”.
The protests – which are developing into the most serious challenge to the Mullahs since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 – erupted at the end of last year due to a crushing economic crisis.
Iran’s currency has collapsed and inflation is rocketing, but the protests have also widened into calls for political change.
Protests have spread to other countries with sizeable Iranian communities.
In Los Angeles, home to the biggest Iranian community outside of Iran, people took to the streets on Sunday.
At one stage a truck bearing an anti-protest banner was driven at speed down the street where they were marching.
The crowds were forced to leap to safety before they chased the truck to try and attack the driver.
Armed police detained him a few blocks away.
In Canberra, Australia, protesters entered the grounds of the Iranian embassy today to remove the official flag of the Islamic Republic and replace it with the Lion and Sun flag, associated with Iran before the revolution.
A protester did the same in London at the weekend.
Britain must back freedom and stand with courageous rebels in Iran
THE SUN ON SUNDAY
YOU would think the attempts by thousands of freedom protesters to overthrow a brutal, murderous regime would warrant some serious support from any British government.
After all we are talking about a tyranny which has promoted terror across the globe and threatened the West with a far-reaching nuclear programme.
But, apart from Sir Keir Starmer’s mealy-mouthed joint European statement calling for “restraint”, the mass uprising against Iran’s blood-soaked supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been received by near- silence from the Labour hierarchy.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper seems to have lost her voice and the mass ranks of government MPs have hardly breathed a dicky bird.
Not a single Labour MP on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee has even so much as tweeted.
Compare that to the party’s fire and fury which blazed daily against Israel for its response to the worst antisemitic attack since the Holocaust.
Perhaps Labour fears upsetting its Muslim base?
The PM says Britain’s shared values include “common respect for freedom, democracy, liberty.’’
Yet for almost 50 years the monstrous mullahs of Iran have overseen a brutal Islamic Republic which uses lethal force against women who don’t wear head coverings.
They have obliterated the right to freedom of expression and anyone in a same-sex relationship could face the death penalty.
Donald Trump’s bold strike against the country’s nuclear programme last year dealt it a devastating political blow.
Now the crumbling economy could be the final nail in the coffin of 86-year-old Khamenei and his barbarous henchmen.
But as they see their powerbase crumbling, the regime’s leaders have arrested almost 2,500 people, including 166 children, and used military grade weapons against unarmed protesters.
It is time for the PM to show his principles count. He and his foreign secretary should throw their wholehearted support behind this uprising.
If Britain backs freedom, democracy and liberty it must stand united with the courageous rebels in Iran.