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Iran’s foreign minister was in Turkey on Friday as Ankara led a diplomatic push to mediate between Tehran and Washington, after US President Donald Trump cooled threats of an imminent strike on the Islamic republic. Tehran and Washington have been trading warnings since Trump threatened military action over a deadly crackdown on protests that erupted in late December over economic grievances and peaked on January 8 and 9. Pressure mounted after the United States moved a naval fleet into the region, with Trump warning time was “running out” for Tehran, pushing for Iran to make a deal on its nuclear programme, which the West believes is aimed at making an atomic bomb. The US president brought the temperature down late on Thursday, saying he hoped to avoid military action and saying talks were on the cards with Iran. “We have a group headed out to a place called Iran, and hopefully we won’t have to use it,” Trump said, while speaking to media at the premiere of a documentary about his wife Melania. The stand off has spurred calls for diplomacy from regional actors and allies of the rival countries. Iran’s neighbour Turkey led a diplomatic charge on Friday, offering to mediate between Tehran and Washington. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in a call that Turkey was “ready to assume a facilitating role between Iran and the United States to de-escalate the tensions and resolve the issues”. Pezeshkian meanwhile said the success of diplomacy depended on the “goodwill of the parties involved and the abandonment of belligerent and threatening actions in the region,” his office said.The call came as Tehran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had travelled to Istanbul for top-level talks on the matter with Turkish top diplomat Hakan Fidan as well as meet with Erdogan, Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement. – Immediate ‘countermeasures’ -Gulf states, some of which host US military sites, have also called for calm, while Tehran-ally Russia has urged negotiations. US ally the European Union also advocated against military action but sent a message of condemnation to Tehran over the crackdown on protests that rights groups say killed thousands of people by designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) a “terrorist organisation”. Iran quickly hit back at the move, with Araghchi calling it a “mistake” and the military saying it was “irresponsible and spite-driven”. On Friday, Ali Shamkhani, a senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on X that “countermeasures will be immediate” in response to the designation. He accused the West of hypocrisy over Israel’s war in Gaza, saying “the meaning of terrorism in American and European discourse has been transformed”. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen had said, “‘Terrorist’ is indeed how you call a regime that crushes its own people’s protests in blood”, as she hailed the designation of the IRGC, which activists say played a frontline role in suppressing protests. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it has confirmed 6,479 people were killed in the demonstrations, including 6,092 protesters and 118 children, as internet restrictions imposed on January 8 continue to hinder access to information inside the country. But rights groups warn the toll is likely far higher, with estimates in the tens of thousands. Iranian authorities acknowledge that thousands were killed during the protests, giving a toll of more than 3,000 deaths, but say the majority were members of the security forces or bystanders killed by “rioters”. burs-sw/sjw/ser

Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi landed in Istanbul on Friday for talks where Turkey was to offer help to mediate tensions with the United States, which has mooted a possible military strike. During the visit, Araghchi was to hold talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and also meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement announcing his arrival. It was not immediately clear at what time the talks would take place but the two ministers were to hold a news conference at 13:45 pm (1045 GMT), the Turkish authorities said. Friday’s visit comes hours after US President Donald Trump said he hoped to avoid military action against Iran, which has threatened to strike American bases and aircraft carriers in response to any attack.For several weeks, Trump has been threatening to launch a military strike on Iran over its deadly protest crackdown earlier this month. A US naval strike group has been in Middle Eastern waters since Monday and Trump warned it was “ready, willing and able” to hit Iran “if necessary”. Late on Thursday, Trump — who had previously warned time was “running out” for Tehran — appeared to slightly pull back, saying: “We have a group headed out to a place called Iran, and hopefully we won’t have to use it.”Turkey has repeatedly expressed its staunch opposition to military action and was to offer to mediate between Washington and Tehran in talks with Araghchi on Friday. It is also considering measures to reinforce security along its border should the dispute escalate. Fidan has urged the sides to return to the negotiating table and suggested Washington tackle outstanding issues with Iran “one-by-one”, starting with the nuclear file rather than trying to address everything at once. As well as Turkey’s diplomatic efforts to stave off a military confrontation, Erdogan has also been pushing Washington for a high-level trilateral meeting, Turkey’s Hurriyet daily, which is close to the government, reported on Thursday. There was no official confirmation of the report. Alongside its diplomatic push, Ankara is assessing additional security precautions along its 500-kilometre (310-mile) frontier with Iran, a senior Turkish official told AFP.Turkey began construction of a wall in 2021 and has so far built 380 kilometres (236 miles) of concrete barrier and 553 kilometres of trenches with nearly 250 surveillance towers. burs-hmw/ach 

The Israeli military said on Friday it launched overnight strikes at “eight terrorists” in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, killing three of them, with a fragile ceasefire still in place in the Palestinian territory.The US-brokered ceasefire, which sought to halt the fighting between Israel and Hamas sparked by the group’s October, 2023 attack has been in place for more than three months despite both sides accusing the other of repeated violations.Earlier in January, Washington announced that the truce had progressed to its second phase, intended to bring a definitive end to the war, even as both sides accused each other of failing to comply with the terms of the truce.In a statement on Friday, the Israeli military said it had identified “eight terrorists” who emerged from underground and that the air force “struck and eliminated three of the terrorists”.Without providing any information on the identities of its targets, it said that further strikes were launched and that “soldiers continue to conduct searches in the area in order to locate and eliminate all the terrorists”.The Israeli military said its forces “remain deployed in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat”. The first phase of the ceasefire largely halted the fighting and provided for the release of all remaining living and dead hostages held by militants in Gaza in exchange for prisoners and the bodies of dead Palestinians held by Israel.The remains of the final hostage, Ran Gvili, were returned earlier this week, with his funeral taking place on Wednesday. – Hamas disarmament -Israel said on Sunday that it would allow a limited reopening of the Rafah crossing, with only pedestrians allowed through, falling short of what aid groups and Gazans had hoped for.The humanitarian situation in the territory of more than two million people remains dire, with most of the population displaced and many living in tents with little or no sanitation amid harsh winter weather.The reopening of Rafah is also expected to allow the entry of the 15-member technocratic administrative committee created as part of the ceasefire to oversee the running of Gaza.The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, made up of Palestinians, is charged with managing day-to-day governance of the territory and answers to US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace”.A key point of the ceasefire’s second phase is the disarming of Hamas. On Thursday, Trump told his cabinet that “It looks like they’re going to disarm”.Publicly, the Islamist group has fiercely resisted the idea of giving up its weapons.In return, Israel is meant to fully withdraw its forces, who remain in control of more than half of Gaza, with an international stabilisation force deployed in their stead.