Prayer leader in Iran and the faithful call for executions over protests, a red line for Trump

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A hard-line cleric leading Friday prayers in Iran's capital demanded the death penalty for protesters detained in a nationwide crackdown and directly threatened U.S. President Donald Trump, showing the rage gripping authorities in the Islamic Republic over demonstrations that have challenged their authority.

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami's sermon, carried by Iranian state radio, sparked chants from those gathered for prayers, including: “Armed hypocrites should be put to death!” Executions, as well as the killing of peaceful protesters, are two of the red lines laid down by Trump for possible military action against Iran over the protests, which began Dec. 28 over Iran's ailing economy and soon morphed into protests directly challenging the country's theocracy.

Iranian authorities cut off access to the internet Jan. 8 and intensified a bloody crackdown on all dissent, which the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reports has killed at least 2,677 people.

Khatami, appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a member of both the country’s Assembly of Experts and its Guardian Council, described the protesters as the “butlers” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “Trump’s soldiers.” He insisted their plans “imagined disintegrating the country.”

“They should wait for hard revenge from the system,” Khatami said of Netanyahu and Trump. “Americans and Zionists should not expect peace.”

Khatami long has been known for his hard-line views in Iran, including in 2007, when he said a fatwa calling for the death of writer Salman Rushdie remained in effect. He also threatened Israel in a 2018 speech by saying Iran could “raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground” with its missile arsenal.

His fiery speech came as allies of Iran and the United States alike sought to defuse tensions. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Friday to both Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Israel's Netanyahu, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Peskov said “the situation in the region is quite tense, and the president is continuing his efforts to help de-escalate it.”

Days after Trump pledged “help is on its way” for the protesters, both the demonstrations and the prospect of imminent U.S. retaliation appeared to have receded. One diplomat told The Associated Press that top officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar had raised concerns with Trump that a U.S. military intervention would shake the global economy and destabilize an already volatile region.

Yet the Trump administration has warned it will act if Iran executes detained protesters. Iran and the U.S. traded angry accusations Thursday at a session of the United Nations Security Council, with U.S. ambassador Mike Waltz saying that Trump “has made it clear that all options are on the table to stop the slaughter.”

Gholam Hossein Darzi, the deputy Iranian ambassador to the U.N., blasted the U.S. for what he said was American “direct involvement in steering unrest in Iran to violence.”

Khatami, the hard-line cleric, also provided the first overall statistics on damage from the protests, claiming 350 mosques, 126 prayer halls and 20 other holy places had sustained damage. Another 80 homes of Friday prayer leaders — an important position within Iran's theocracy — were also damaged, likely underlining the anger demonstrators felt toward symbols of the government.

He said 400 hospitals, 106 ambulance, 71 fire department vehicles and another 50 emergency vehicles also sustained damage.

As a cleric in the public positions, Khatami would have access to such data from authorities, and mentioning it at Friday prayers likely meant Iran's government wanted the information to be communicated without having to formally address the public.

Even as protests appeared to have been smothered inside Iran, thousands of exiled Iranians and their supporters have taken to the streets in cities across Europe to shout out their rage at the government of the Islamic Republic.

More than a week into the nationwide internet shutdown, some Iranians crossed borders to communicate with the outside world. A border crossing with Iran in Turkey’s eastern province of Van has not seen a major influx of Iranians fleeing the unrest, but a number of Iranians crossing the border Friday said they have been making short jaunts to the neighboring country to get around the communications blackout.

“I will go back to Iran after they open the internet,” said a traveler who gave only his first name, Mehdi, out of security concerns.

The death toll of at least 2,677, provided by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The agency has been accurate throughout years of demonstrations, relying on a network of activists inside Iran that confirms all reported fatalities.

The AP has been unable to independently confirm the group’s toll. The Iranian government has not provided casualty figures.