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Thousands in the United States staged large demonstrations Sunday denouncing the Iranian government’s deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters in the Islamic Republic.Several thousand people marched in Los Angeles, home to the world’s largest Iranian diaspora, while several hundred others gathered in New York, AFP journalists in both cities reported. US protesters could be seen carrying signs condemning a “New Holocaust,” a “genocide in the making,” and the “terror” of the Iranian government.”My heart is heavy and my soul is crushed, I’m at loss for words to describe how angry I am,” said Perry Faraz at the demonstration in Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the US.The 62-year-old payroll manager, who fled Iran in 2006, learned this week that one of her young cousins had been killed during the overseas rallies held in her native country.”He wasn’t even 10 years old, that’s horrible,” she said.Demonstrations sparked by anger over economic hardship exploded into protests late December in what has been widely seen as the biggest challenge to the Iranian leadership in recent years.The rallies subsided after a government crackdown in Iran that rights groups have called a “massacre” carried out by security forces under the cover of a communications blackout that started on January 8.Norway-based Iran Human Rights says it has verified the deaths of 3,428 protesters killed by security forces, confirming cases through sources within the Islamic Republic’s health and medical system, witnesses and independent sources.The NGO warned that the true toll is likely to be far higher. Media cannot independently confirm the figure and Iranian officials have not given an exact death toll.- Calls for US intervention -“This mass murdering of the population is terribly upsetting,” Ali Parvaneh, a 65-year-old lawyer protesting in LA said. Like many protesters, Parvaneh carried a “Make Iran Great Again” sign and said he wanted US President Donald Trump to intervene by targeting the country’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).Some in the crowd in LA went as far as to call for the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has been in power for more than 25 years. After having attacked Iranian nuclear sites in June, Trump sent mixed signals on possible US intervention this week. The Republican first threatened to intervene if Iranian protesters were killed, but then said he was satisfied by Iranian assurances that demonstrators would not be executed.”I really hope that Trump will go one step beyond just voicing support,” Parvaneh said.Many protesting in the Californian city chanted slogans in support of the US president and Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Shah of Iran who was deposed by the popular uprising in 1979.- ‘Don’t need a puppet’ – Parvaneh echoed Pahlavi’s popularity among some segments of Iran’s exiled and expatriate population.”Had the monarchy stayed in place, it would be much different and Iran would be in a much better situation,” he said.Pahlavi’s support base is concentrated abroad while his political sway within Iran is limited.The former Shah’s son, who lives in exile near Washington, said this week he would be ready to return to Iran — but it is unclear if most Iranians want this.The Iranian opposition remains divided, and memories of the Shah’s brutal repression of his left-wing opponents remain vivid. Last week, a man caused minor injuries when he drove a truck into a demonstration held by Iranians in Los Angeles, carrying a sign that read: “No Shah. No Regime. USA: Don’t Repeat 1953. No Mullah.” The sign was referring to the 1953 coup that saw Iran’s government overthrown in a US- and UK-backed operation that had seen Pahlavi installed as the country’s leader.In Los Angeles’s Westwood neighborhood, nicknamed “Tehrangeles,” Roozbeh Farahanipour believes the diaspora must support Iranians without infringing on their “right to decide their own future.””They don’t need a puppet implanted by the West,” said the 54-year-old restaurant owner.Others in California also share that view.”Trump is playing the Iranian people,” said poet Karim Farsis, a resident of the San Francisco Bay area. Farsis, an academic, stresses that it is US sanctions — including those imposed by Trump — and the Republican’s ripping up of a nuclear deal that have contributed in large part to the suffering of the Iranian people.She also criticized the almost complete ban on Iranians entering the US since June.”We’re living in a really twisted moment,” she said. “Trump is saying to Iranians: ‘Keep protesting, take over your institutions.'”But if they find themselves in danger, they can’t even find refuge in the United States.”

Limited internet access briefly returned in Iran before dropping again, a monitor said Sunday, 10 days into a communications blackout that rights groups said aimed to mask a protest crackdown that killed thousands.Iran’s president warned that an attack on the country’s supreme leader would be a declaration of war — an apparent response to US counterpart Donald Trump saying it was time to look for new leadership in Iran.Demonstrations sparked in late December by anger over economic hardship exploded into protests widely seen as the biggest challenge to the Iranian leadership in years.The rallies subsided after the crackdown that rights groups have called a “massacre” carried out by security forces under the cover of a communications blackout that started on January 8.Monitor Netblocks said late Sunday that “traffic levels have fallen after a brief, heavily filtered restoration of select Google and messaging services in Iran”.Iranian officials have said the demonstrations were peaceful before turning into “riots” and blamed foreign influence from Iran’s arch-foes the United States and Israel. Trump, who joined Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June, had repeatedly threatened new military action against Tehran if protesters were killed.While Washington appeared to have stepped back, Trump hit out at supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an interview with Politico on Saturday, saying it was “time to look for new leadership in Iran”. “The man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people,” Trump said.Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday warned on X: “An attack on the great leader of our country is tantamount to a full-scale war with the Iranian nation.”As leaders in Washington and Tehran have exchanged barbs, Iranian officials have said calm has been restored in the streets. Security forces with armoured vehicles and motorcycles were seen in central Tehran, according to AFP correspondents.- ‘Cannot just stay silent’ -Schools reopened on Sunday after a week of closure.Pezeshkian meanwhile told a cabinet meeting that he “recommended to the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council that internet restrictions be lifted as soon as possible”.Some users reported access to WhatsApp, while outgoing international calls had resumed since Tuesday, and text messaging was restored Saturday. Fars news agency on Sunday reported that the chief executive of Irancell, Iran’s second-largest mobile phone operator, was dismissed for failing to comply with the government’s decision to shut down the internet.Solidarity demonstrations have continued in multiple cities in recent days, including in Berlin, London and Paris.Despite the restrictions, information had still filtered out, with reports of atrocities emerging, according to rights groups.Amnesty International said it had verified dozens of videos and accounts in recent days showing a “massacre of protesters” by security forces.Norway-based Iran Human Rights says it has verified the deaths of 3,428 protesters killed by security forces, confirming cases through sources within the Islamic republic’s health and medical system, witnesses and independent sources.However, the NGO warns the true toll is likely far higher. Media cannot independently confirm the figure and Iranian officials have not given an exact death toll for the protests.Other estimates place the death toll at more than 5,000 — and possibly as high as 20,000 — though the internet blackout has severely hampered independent verification, IHR says.The overseas-based opposition Iran International channel has said at least 12,000 people were killed during the protests, citing senior government and security sources.Iran’s judiciary has rejected that figure.- ‘Not be spared’ -On Saturday, Khamenei said “a few thousand” people had been killed by what he called “agents” of the United States and Israel, and Iranian local media has reported multiple deaths among security forces.Khamenei said authorities “must break the back of the seditionists”, as local media have reported thousands of arrests and rights groups have estimated up to 20,000 people have been detained. On Sunday, judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir reiterated that swift trials would be held, warning that some acts warranted the capital offence of “moharebeh”, or “waging war against God”. “All those who played a decisive role in these calls for violence, which led to bloodshed and significant damage to public finances, will not be spared,” he said.Alarm has grown over the threat of capital punishment against arrested protesters, even as Trump said Iran had called off hundreds of executions.Analyst Arif Keskin cast doubt on Trump’s claim, saying “the Iranian leadership sees executions… as an effective tool to end protests, prevent them and suppress them”.burs-sw/jsa/jxb