Iran. Brent 66 $23 Jan 2026 21:32
Donald Trump has said an American “armada” is heading towards the Middle East and that the US is monitoring Iran closely, as activists put the death toll from Tehran’s crackdown on protesters at 5,002.
Speaking on Air Force One as he returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos overnight, he said: “We have a lot of ships going that direction, just in case. I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely … we have an armada … heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it.”
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers are due to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days. Additional air defence systems are being deployed, most likely around US and Israeli airbases. The UK said it would send RAF Eurofighter Typhoon jets from 12 Squadron to Qatar, at Doha’s request.
The US president pulled back from attacking Iran two weeks ago, despite promising “help is on its way”, largely because he felt he had been given no military option that would prove decisive in securing regime change in Tehran. He was also urged to hold back by the Gulf states.
In an update on Friday, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said the death toll from the Iranian crackdown on protesters had reached 5,002 – comprising 4,716 demonstrators, 203 government-affiliated people, 43 children and 40 civilians not taking part in the protests.
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The agency’s numbers have been accurate in previous unrest in Iran and rely on a network of activists there to verify deaths. HRANA said at least 26,541 people had been arrested.
The protests started on 28 December when traders took to the streets in Tehran in response to a sudden dip in the value of the rial. As they spread, demands expanded to include calls for an end to the country’s government, creating the most serious and deadliest unrest in the country since the 1979 revolution.
Donald Trump speaks while standing in a doorway on the plane
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Trump speaks with reporters onboard Air Force One after leaving the World Economic Forum in Davos. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP
Speaking at an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Türk, the UN commissioner for human rights, said thousands of people, including children, had been killed on the streets and in residential areas. He said video evidence showed there were hundreds in morgues with fatal injuries to their heads and chests, while hundreds of security personnel had also been killed.
He urged Iran to “end their brutal repression”, including summary trials, and urged a complete moratorium on the use of the death penalty.
Türk decried Iran’s judiciary chief this week say
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