The Albany Gazette - Iran protest toll mounts as government stages mass rallies

Rights groups have sounded the alarm over the deadly crackdown, warning an internet blackout that monitor Netblocks says has lasted more than three-and-a-half days is aimed at masking the extent of the bloodshed.

The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it had confirmed 648 people killed during the protests, including nine minors, and thousands more injuries, but warned the death toll was likely much higher -- "according to some estimates more than 6,000", it said.

IHR added that the internet shutdown made it "extremely difficult to independently verify these reports".

It said an estimated 10,000 people had also been arrested.

"The international community has a duty to protect civilian protesters against mass killing by the Islamic republic," said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

Despite the blackout severely affecting Iranians' ability to post videos of the protests, which have rocked big cities since Thursday, one video geolocated by AFP showed dozens of bodies outside a morgue south of Tehran, with what appeared to be grieving relatives searching for loved ones.

Over two weeks of demonstrations initially sparked by economic grievances have turned into one of the biggest challenges yet to the theocratic system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution ousted the shah.

Seeking to regain the initiative, the government called for rallies nationwide backing the Islamic republic on Monday.

- 'Four-front war' -

Thousands of people filled the capital's Enghelab (Revolution) Square brandishing the national flag as prayers were read for victims of what the government has termed "riots", state TV showed.

Addressing the crowds, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran was fighting a "four-front war", listing economic war, psychological war, "military war" with the United States and Israel, and "today a war against terrorists" -- a reference to the protests.

Flanked by the slogans "Death to Israel, Death to America" in Persian, he vowed the Iranian military would teach US President Donald Trump "an unforgettable lesson" if Iran were attacked.

Trump said Sunday that Iran's leadership under supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in power since 1989 and now 86, had called him seeking "to negotiate" after the US president repeatedly threatened to intervene militarily if Tehran killed protesters.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is not seeking war but is fully prepared for war," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told a conference of foreign ambassadors in Tehran broadcast by state television.

"We are also ready for negotiations but these negotiations should be fair, with equal rights and based on mutual respect."

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said a channel of communication was open between Araghchi and Trump's special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff despite the lack of diplomatic relations.

Iranian state media has said dozens of members of the security forces have been killed, with their funerals turning into large pro-government rallies. The government has declared three days of national mourning for those killed.

State outlets were at pains to present a picture of calm returning, broadcasting images of smooth-flowing traffic.

Tehran Governor Mohammad-Sadegh Motamedian insisted in televised comments that "the number of protests is decreasing".

- 'Respect for their rights' -

The European Union has voiced support for the protesters and on Monday said it was "looking into" imposing additional sanctions on Iran over the repression of demonstrations.

The European Parliament also announced it had banned all Iranian diplomats and representatives from the assembly's premises.

French President Emmanuel Macron, however, issued a statement later Monday condemning "the state violence that indiscriminately targets Iranian women and men who courageously demand respect for their rights".

Tehran-ally Russia, for its part, slammed what it called attempts by "foreign powers" to interfere in Iran, state media reported, in Moscow's first reaction to the protests.

Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran's ousted shah, urged Iran's security forces and government workers to join the protests against the authorities.

"Employees of state institutions, as well as members of the armed and security forces, have a choice: stand with the people and become allies of the nation, or choose complicity with the murderers of the people," he said in a social media post.

(L.Thomas--TAG)