Protestors have taken to the streets of Tehran, calling for “death to the dictator” and chanting the slogans of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement born out of the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, allegedly at the hands of Tehran’s morality police for her defiance of the country’s strict rules enforcing the wearing of the hijab.
In response, security forces have used tear gas to disperse the protests, which have continued throughout the week.
Footage circulating on social media showed hundreds of Iranians blocking busy roads and chanting slogans despite the police crackdown.
Commenting on the clip, Conservative peer Lord Goldsmith wrote on X: “Extraordinary bravery. And extraordinary that all the noisiest Palestine campaigners are resolutely silent on this.
"It completely exposes the theatrical nature of their protests, as well as their inclination to ignore human rights except where Jews can rightly or wrongly be blamed.
“And perhaps cowardice too. There’s no risk in bashing Israel. There’s plenty of risk in bashing the brutal and oppressive Iranian regime, even here in the UK. It’s all so utterly transparent.”
Trump’s comments reflect a renewal of tensions after the US struck Iran in June last year, using B-2 stealth bombers and “bunker-busting” munitions to inflict significant damage on the country’s nuclear facilities during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel.
And the president has recently suggested that fresh conflict could break out if Tehran continues to try to redevelop its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.
Speaking during a summit at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said the US knew “exactly where [Iran are] going and what they're doing".
"I've been reading that they're building up weapons and other things,” he went on. “If they are, they're not using the sites we obliterated, but possibly different sites.”
He then joked that he hoped Iran would not build up its nuclear stocks as he didn’t “want to waste fuel on a B-2,” referring to the bombers used in June’s attacks.
He continued: “I hear Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we have to knock them down. We'll knock the hell out of them.”
Meanwhile, Iranian-linked militias in Iraq have released an infographic purporting to show the range of Tehran's new slate of ballistic missiles.
The image was published by al-Faqaar, a Telegram channel affiliated with these militias, and contained details of 14 different types of missile it claimed were in the Islamic Republic's arsenal.
A graphic released by Iranian-linked militias in Iraq, allegedly showing the range of Tehran's missile arsenal (Memri)[Missing Credit]
According to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), the channel captioned the image: "A glimpse of Iran's ballistic missiles."
"What we see today may be just a public portion [of Iran's missile capabilities] as there are possibilities for more advanced programmes that Iran hasn't revealed yet," it added.
The graphic showed the range of 14 missiles in size order, varying from around 7m in length to 18m.
While the smallest, the "Ya-Ali", has a claimed range of just 700km - barely enough to carry it beyond Iran's borders - the militias allege that the much larger "Sejjil" can fly up to 2000km.
If accurate, this would allow it to strike as far west as Egypt (including the entirety of Israel), per the graphic.
And, should Iran's ire turn towards Europe, such range could bring parts of Turkey, Ukraine and Russia into the firing line, as well as large sections of Kazakhstan and all of Georgia.
However, the graphic did not provide evidence for this claimed range, nor did it detail the size of Iran's stockpile of each missile type.
