Iran's Top Diplomat Issues US Threat   01/21 06:19

   Iran's foreign minister issued the most direct threat yet Wednesday against 
the United States after Tehran's bloody crackdown on protesters, warning the 
Islamic Republic will be "firing back with everything we have if we come under 
renewed attack."

   DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iran's foreign minister issued the most 
direct threat yet Wednesday against the United States after Tehran's bloody 
crackdown on protesters, warning the Islamic Republic will be "firing back with 
everything we have if we come under renewed attack."

   The comments by Abbas Araghchi, who saw his invitation to the World Economic 
Forum in Davos rescinded over the killings, comes as an American aircraft 
carrier group moves westward toward the Middle East from Asia. American fighter 
jets and other equipment appears to be moving in the Mideast after a major U.S. 
military deployment in the Caribbean saw troops seize Venezuela's Nicols 
Maduro.

   Meanwhile, an Iranian Kurdish separatist group in Iraq claimed Iran targeted 
one of its bases in a drone and missile attack that killed at least one 
fighter. Iran did not immediately acknowledge the attack, which would be the 
first foreign operation Tehran has launched since the protests started.

   Araghchi makes threat in column

   Araghchi made the threat in an opinion article published by The Wall Street 
Journal. In it, the foreign minister contended "the violent phase of the unrest 
lasted less than 72 hours" and sought again to blame armed demonstrators for 
the violence. Videos that have slipped out of Iran despite an internet shutdown 
appear to show security forces repeatedly using live fire to target apparently 
unarmed protesters, something unaddressed by Araghchi.

   "Unlike the restraint Iran showed in June 2025, our powerful armed forces 
have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under 
renewed attack," Araghchi wrote, referring to the 12-day war launched by Israel 
on Iran in June. "This isn't a threat, but a reality I feel I need to convey 
explicitly, because as a diplomat and a veteran, I abhor war."

   He added: "An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on 
far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are 
trying to peddle to the White House. It will certainly engulf the wider region 
and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe."

   Araghchi's comments likely refer to Iran's short- and medium-range missiles. 
The Islamic Republic relied on ballistic missiles to target Israel in the war 
and left its stockpile of the shorter-range missiles unused, something that 
could be fired to target American bases and interests in the Persian Gulf. 
Already, there have been some restrictions on U.S. diplomats traveling to 
American bases in both Kuwait and Qatar.

   Mideast nations, particularly diplomats from Gulf Arab countries, had 
lobbied Trump not to attack. Last week, Iran shut its airspace, likely in 
anticipation of a strike.

   The USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been in the South China Sea in recent 
days, had passed through the Strait of Malacca, a key waterway connecting the 
South China Sea and Indian Ocean, by Tuesday, ship-tracking data showed.

   A U.S. Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aircraft 
carrier and three accompanying destroyers were heading west.

   While naval and other defense officials stopped short of saying the carrier 
strike group was headed to the Middle East, its current heading and location in 
the Indian Ocean means it is only days away from moving into the region. 
Meanwhile, U.S. military images released in recent days showed F-15E Strike 
Eagles arriving in the Mideast and forces in the region moving a HIMARS missile 
system, the type used with great success by Ukraine after Russia's full-scale 
invasion in the country in 2022.

   Kurdish exiles claim Iranian attack in Iraq

   The National Army of Kurdistan, the armed wing of the Kurdistan Freedom 
Party, or PAK, claimed Iran launched an attack against one of its bases near 
Irbil, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Baghdad. It said one fighter 
had been killed, releasing mobile phone footage of a fire in the predawn 
darkness.

   Iranian state television, which has confirmed attacks on the group in the 
past, did not acknowledge the assault.

   A handful of Iranian Kurdish dissident or separatist groups -- some with 
armed wings -- have long found a safe haven in northern Iraq's semiautonomous 
Kurdish region, where their presence has been a point of friction between the 
central government in Baghdad and Tehran. The PAK has claimed it launched 
attacks in Iran as a crackdown on the demonstrations took place, something 
reported by semiofficial Iranian news agencies as well.

   Protest death toll rises

   The death toll from the protests has reached at least 4,519 people, the 
U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said. The agency has been 
accurate throughout the years on demonstrations and unrest in Iran, relying on 
a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported 
fatalities. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the 
death toll.

   The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran 
in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution that brought 
the Islamic Republic into being. Although there have been no protests for days, 
there are fears the death toll could increase significantly as information 
gradually emerges from a country still under a government-imposed shutdown of 
the internet since Jan. 8.

   Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that the 
protests had left "several thousand" people dead and blamed the United States. 
It was the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the 
casualties.

   More than 26,300 people have been arrested, according to the Human Rights 
Activists News Agency. Comments from officials have led to fears of some of 
those detained being put to death in Iran, one of the world's top executioners. 
That and the killing of peaceful protesters have been two red lines laid down 
by Trump in the tensions.