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Exiled Iranian prince Reza Pahlavi said on Tuesday the death toll from unrest in Iran has surged in recent days and called on the international community, including the United States, to provide meaningful support to protesters facing what he described as deadly force from authorities.
“The sad news is that we have had more casualties in the last two days — four times the number of people who were dead as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attack. What we get so far is at least, plus 12,000. It might be more, but that’s the minimum number we know have been killed,” Pahlavi told Fox News with Brett Baier.
“We are talking about using military weapons, AK-47s, armored trucks, to shoot to kill unarmed protesters. Their bodies are being picked up by bulldozers, he added.
Asked if he supports any military action, the prince said this is about saving lives and not aggressive interference.
“When civilians are being murdered and massacred in a war waged against them by their own government, some additional help is needed. I’m not talking about aggression — I’m talking about helping a nation liberate itself,” Pahlavi said.
Republican senators on Tuesday threw their weight behind a US attack against Iran, framing potential intervention as a path to regime change welcomed by protesters, as Democrats urged restraint and warned of backlash in interviews with Iran International.
“Help is on the way,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said. “Regime change is a result of the people not wanting to live in a country where a 16-year-old girl can be killed for not wearing the headscarf.”
“They don’t want to live a country governed by an Ayatollah who’s a religious fanatic,” he added. “I am following the people. They want a new life.”
Graham said the fall of the Islamic Republic would have major regional consequences.
“If this regime falls, it will be a godsend to America,” he said. “The largest state sponsor of terrorism will fall, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the good people of Iran will be in charge.”
Asked about timing, Graham said, “I’ll leave it up to the president, but if you saw his tweet today, I would say soon, because if we let it go much longer, people are going to doubt.”
Senator Markwayne Mullin also warned Tehran to take President Donald Trump’s threats seriously.
“The murderous regime and Iran needs to pay attention to what the president said,” Mullin told Iran International.
“The president made it very clear if you’re killing the innocent or simply protesting that he’ll come to the rescue and the president doesn’t bluff.”
“But it’s always on his timing when we’re ready to go,” Mullin added.
By contrast, Democratic senators urged restraint.
“My heart is broken for the people of Iran who are protesting, understandably, the economic failures and the repression of that regime,” Senator Richard Blumenthal said. “I think we should be very, very careful about any military operation there because it would backfire and actually bolster the regime.”
Senator Dick Durbin also cautioned against US intervention.
“I’m very concerned with the situation in Iran and statements made by President Trump about the demonstrators,” Durbin said. “I think we need to take care to make sure that we don’t overstep our boundaries.”
Referring to the Iraq war, he added: “When I was one of the 23 who voted against the invasion of Iraq, and I still think that that was the right vote, maybe one of the most important votes of my career.”
President Donald Trump joined a meeting on Iran on Tuesday evening after returning from Detroit, according to reporting from Axios journalist Barak Ravid.
"After he returned from Detroit earlier this evening, President Trump joined the Iran meeting that was chaired by Vice President Vance and attended by his top national security team. Trump was briefed on the situation in Iran, according to a source with knowledge of the matter," he posted on X.
US Senator Ted Cruz said President Donald Trump has made clear that the United States supports the Iranian people amid ongoing unrest in the country.
“President Donald Trump has made it clear that America has the back of the Iranian people," Republican Senator of Texas posted on X."I am proud to stand with the heroes in Iran who don’t want an Islamist dictator oppressing them anymore.”
Iran’s top Sunni cleric, Mowlavi Abdolhamid, on Tuesday condemned the violent killing of protesters in cities across the country, warning that those who gave such orders would be held accountable.
“The massacre of thousands of protesters in Tehran and other cities of our country over a few days was a horrific and unprecedented catastrophe. This bitter event has plunged the Iranian nation into grief and rage, and has deeply wounded the conscience of free people around the world,” he posted on X.
“Undoubtedly, those who ordered and carried out this crime will be held accountable in this world, and in the hereafter they will also deserve divine punishment,” Abdolhamid added.
