Iranians BURN US & Israel flags and chant ‘we want to DIE for Ayatollah' as thousands join ‘death to the West' protests
SEETHING Iranians burned US and Israeli flags and swore their allegiance to the regime in mass protests across the country.
Thousands flooded the capital's streets after weekly prayers, chanting for the death of the west and pledging their lives to the Supreme Leader.
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Israel has urged the people of Iran to rise up against the regime, but there are still pockets of support for the Islamic government.
But alongside their loyalty to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the crowds aimed vitriolic hate at Israel and the West.
Photos show Israeli and US flag deliberately set on fire and trampled on.
A sea of Iranian and Hezbollah flags and photos of Khamenei were paraded through the roads.
Footage also shows demonstrators brandishing pictures of commanders killed over the past week by Israel's missiles.
One banner read: "I will sacrifice my life for my leader."
Iranian state TV said: "This is the Friday of the Iranian nation's solidarity and resistance across the country."
The broadcaster said that protests also took place in other cities - particularly Tabriz in northwestern Iran and Shiraz in the south.
And there are reports of smaller scale gatherings in towns around the country.
While these crowds back the regime, there are plenty in Iran who want to see it toppled and the people finally freed from its tyranny.
Thousands have drained from Tehran and even left the country.
Friday's protests were by far the largest since Israel and Iran began trading missiles.
People took to the streets despite the ongoing threat of Israeli bombs.
In Isfahan, home to one of the nuclear facilities Israel has hit, thousands joined in the funeral of an Iranian killed in an Israeli attack.
Several men were seen carrying a coffin draped with Iranian flags and with a photo of a uniformed soldier.
Behind them, men, women and children followed, chanting: 'Death to Israel, death to America."
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Protester Abu Hussein, a 54-year-old taxi driver, told Arab News: 'It is an unjust war… Israel has no right.
'Israel is not in it for the (Iranian) nuclear (program).
"What Israel and the Americans want is to dominate the Middle East."
The protests came on a day that efforts to find a diplomatic solution got gathered momentum.
Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi travelled to Geneva to meet European foreign minsters - including those from the UK, Germany and France.
Earlier in the day, he attended a special meeting of the UN's Human Rights Council.
Meanwhile, the UN's Security Council met in New York upon Iran's request.
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The Sun
34 minutes ago
- The Sun
Iran plots to activate terrorist sleeper cell network across West in desperate last act in face of Israeli destruction
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"If the regime feels threatened and on the verge of being toppled, then they may say, 'you're going to go down with us,' and at that point they may unleash their sleeper cells." In an op-ed for The Sun, expert Mark Almond wrote: "Iran's Islamic regime is a dangerous, wounded predator. "It cannot defeat Israel, but it could go mad and unleash terrorism, even using chemical weapons, which its industries can make much more easily than nuclear weapons." 4 Mr Seener said the attacks could range from an attack against a synagogue, an embassy, or blowing up a dirty bomb in Central London. Sir Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, warned back in October that Iran could turn on UK targets if it felt Britain was too enthusiastic in its support for Israel. He said the attacks could increase if the Middle East conflict intensifies. In August, Matt Jukes, the head of Counter Terror Policing, warned that Britain is facing an increase in plots by hostile states. 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'The failure to proscribe the IRGC is putting British lives at risk, not least those from the British-Jewish community and British-Iranian diaspora —the two primary targets of IRGC terrorism in the UK.'
Reuters
39 minutes ago
- Reuters
Iran says no to nuclear talks during conflict as UN urges restraint
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Iranian air defences were activated on Friday evening, Fars news agency reported. Iran fired missiles at Beersheba in southern Israel and Haifa in the north, causing damage to an Ottoman-era mosque, according to Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. A foreign ministry video also showed extensive damage to a nearby high-rise building that houses a branch of Israel's Interior Ministry. Haifa is home to Israel's busiest seaport and a naval base. Fars news agency quoted an Iranian military spokesman as saying Tehran's missile and drone attacks on Friday had used long-range and ultra-heavy missiles against military sites, defence industries and command and control centres. About 20 missiles were fired in those latest Iranian strikes, an Israeli military official said, and at least two people were hurt, according to the Israeli ambulance service. Israel's envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the U.N. 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The Guardian
40 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Iran says diplomacy with US only possible if Israeli aggression stops
Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has said that his country is only ready for more diplomacy with the US if Israel's war on his country is brought to an end 'and the aggressor is held accountable for the crimes he committed'. After several hours of talks with European foreign ministers in Geneva on Friday, there was no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough – or a resumption of negotiations with the US. Araghchi said: 'Iran is ready to consider diplomacy once again and once the aggression is stopped and the aggressor is held accountable for the crimes committed. We support the continuation of discussion with [Britain, France, Germany and the EU] and express our readiness to meet again in the near future.' Araghchi said he was willing to continue talks with his European counterparts since they have not supported Israel's attacks directly. But he said Iran was 'seriously concerned over the failure of the three countries to condemn Israel's act of aggression' and would continue to exercise its right to 'legitimite defence'. He also said Iran's capabilities, including its missile capabilities, are non-negotiable, and could not form part of the talks, a rebuff to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who in an earlier statement said they should be included in the talks. With Israeli diplomats and military commanders warning of a 'prolonged war,' the route to direct talks between the US and Iran remains blocked, leaving the European countries as intermediaries. After Friday's talks between Araghchi and his British, French, German counterparts, the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, said: 'This is a perilous moment, and it is hugely important that we don't see regional escalation of this conflict.' The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said there 'can be no definitive solution through military means to the Iran nuclear problem. Military operations can delay it but they cannot eliminate it'. The talks are being held against the backdrop of Donald Trump's threat that the US could launch its own military assault on Iran within a fortnight – a step that would probably turn the already bloody war into a full-scale regional conflagration. European diplomats said they came to talks to deliver a tough message from the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and US special envoy Steve Witkoff: that the threat of US military action is real but that a 'diplomatic pathway remains open'. But without US-Iran direct talks it is hard to see how an agreement can be reached to curtail Iran's nuclear programme in a way that satisfies the US headline demand that Iran must never have a nuclear bomb. Late on Friday, Trump suggested that European efforts would not be enough to bring any resolution, telling reporters: 'Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this.' The European ministers said they had expressed their longstanding concerns about Iran's expansion of its nuclear programme 'which has no credible civilian purpose and is in violation of almost all provisions in the nuclear deal agreed in 2015'. The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said: 'Today the regional escalation benefits no one. We must keep the discussions open.' Earlier on Friday, Macron said that the European offer to end Israel's war would include an Iranian move to zero uranium enrichment, restrictions on its ballistic missile programme and an end to Tehran's funding of terrorist groups. The proposals were surprisingly broad, spanning a range of complex issues beyond Iran's disputed nuclear programme, and appeared likely to complicate any solution unless an interim agreement can be agreed. One proposal recently aired is for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment for the duration of Donald Trump's US presidency. The concept of uranium enrichment being overseen by a consortium of Middle East countries – including Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – remains on the table. Macron, already accused by Trump of publicity-seeking this week, set out a daunting agenda. 'It's absolutely essential to prioritise a return to substantial negotiations, including nuclear negotiations to move towards zero [uranium] enrichment, ballistic negotiations to limit Iran's activities and capabilities, and the financing of all terrorist groups and destabilisation of the region that Iran has been carrying out for several years,' he said. In the previous five rounds of talks, the US insisted that Iran end its entire domestic uranium enrichment programme, but said it would allow Iran to retain a civil nuclear programme, including by importing enriched uranium from a multinational consortium. Iran claims that as a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, it has an absolute legal right to enrich uranium, a position neither the European or American powers have ever endorsed. In the past, European negotiators have proved more adept than their US partners in finding compromises, including the temporary suspension of domestic enrichment, a principle Tehran reluctantly endorsed in 2003-4.
