White House envoy Steve Witkoff over the weekend met with Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran's last shah and a prominent voice in the fragmented opposition, to discuss the protests roiling that country, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing an unidentified senior US official.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged Iranians to keep protesting and remember the names of those abusing them, saying help is on the way, as Iran's clerical establishment pressed its crackdown against the biggest demonstrations in years.
Iran in turn accused Trump of encouraging political destabilisation and inciting violence.
"Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!... HELP IS ON ITS WAY," Trump said in a post on Truth Social, without saying what that help might be.
He said he had canceled all meetings with Iranian officials until the "senseless killing" of protesters stopped and in a later speech told Iranians to "save the name of the killers and the abusers ... because they'll pay a very big price."
An Iranian official said about 2,000 people had been killed, the first time authorities have given an overall death toll from more than two weeks of nationwide unrest.
Iran Points To US And Israel
Iranian authorities previously accused the US and Israel of fomenting the unrest.
In response to Trump's social media post that "help is on the way," Iran's UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said the US president was inciting violence, threatening the country's sovereignty and security and seeking to destabilise the government.
"The United States and the Israeli regime bear direct and undeniable legal responsibility for the resulting loss of innocent civilian lives, particularly among the youth," he wrote in a letter to the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
Russia on Tuesday condemned "subversive external interference" in Iran's internal politics, saying any repeat of last year's US strikes would have "disastrous consequences" for the Middle East and international security.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Monday he had continued to communicate with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and that Tehran was studying ideas proposed by Washington.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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