EU lawmaker to host meeting on Iran protest crackdown

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council instructed newspaper editors and online media managers to stop publishing independent reporting on protest deaths and to avoid interviewing bereaved families, according to information shared with Iran International.

The instruction, according to the information received by Iran International, was conveyed during a meeting with managers of domestic media outlets and explicitly required them to refer only to figures released by state bodies, while avoiding any independent accounting of deaths.

The same directive, the sources said, also prohibited interviews or conversations with families of those killed.

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The instruction, according to the information received by Iran International, was conveyed during a meeting with managers of domestic media outlets and explicitly required them to refer only to figures released by state bodies, while avoiding any independent accounting of deaths.

The same directive, the sources said, also prohibited interviews or conversations with families of those killed.

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Sources described as familiar with the decision said the measure was aimed at preventing broader disclosure of the scale of the killings of protesters, which they said occurred under direct orders from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Media managers question the order

The directive was delivered, the report said, as some domestic media managers challenged the government’s line during the same session, pointing to internal information suggesting a death toll in the thousands and questioning instructions issued under President Masoud Pezeshkian and the Supreme National Security Council.

Those participants, according to the account, argued there is a wide gap between official numbers and information circulating inside the country.

Iran’s National Security Council, a body operating under the Interior Minister, on Wednesday published figures for the first time covering deaths on January 8 and 9.

The statement put the number of killed protesters at 690. It also listed a total death toll of 3,117 across the two days, but described 2,427 of those as “martyrs” drawn from “innocent people and guardians of order and security,” a designation in the Islamic Republic’s official language generally used for those aligned with state institutions.

The Islamic Republic’s Martyrs Foundation also announced on Wednesday that military and security forces had taken the lives of only 690 protesters, while another 2,427 people were said to have been killed by protesters. The institution had initially reported 3,317 deaths, but hours later revised the figure down to 3,117.

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Iran International said the official numbers differ sharply from information it has received, eyewitness accounts, and reporting by international media.

The outlet’s editorial board has previously put the number of protesters killed by state forces at at least 12,000, according to its published statement.

The number of civilians killed in Iran’s crackdown on protests may be more than 20,000, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran said, citing reports from doctors inside the country, Bloomberg reported.

Mai Sato said earlier this week that civilian deaths were estimated at 5,000 or more, adding that medical reports suggested the toll could be far higher, at about 20,000 or more.

Iran International’s statement described the killings on January 8 and 9 as unprecedented in modern Iranian history in geographic spread, intensity of violence, and number of deaths.

A senior Iranian cleric said US interests and military bases in the Middle East were within range of Iran’s missiles, repeating warnings often issued by officials in Tehran amid tensions with Washington.

Mohammad Javad Haj Ali-Akbari said the United States had invested what he described as one trillion dollars in the region, adding that “all of your interests and bases are clear and precise targets of our missiles,” according to state media.

“That one trillion dollars you invested in the region is under the watch of our missiles,” he said.

A senior Iranian cleric said the United States had sought to target Iran’s leadership using a model similar to Venezuela, and warned that any attack would trigger a wider regional response.

Mohammad Saeedi, who represents Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the city of Qom, said Iran had sent messages warning that “any aggression would be answered by involving the entire region.”

He added that Iran’s enemies had concluded the country’s leadership remained the main obstacle to US goals.

A video circulating on social media shows a man speaking inside an ambulance carrying the body of his brother, who was killed during unrest in Iran’s western city of Kermanshah.

In the footage, the man says his brother was shot multiple times.

“They tore my brother apart with bullets,” he says. “He was my support. We will get justice.”