Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday expressed hope for peace and stability in Iran and the wider region in a phone call with his Iranian counterpart. A post on X by the Foreign Office said FM Dar and Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi held a phone call.
“They discussed the current situation in Iran and the wider region. DPM/FM expressed hope for peace and stability, and both sides agreed to continue bilateral consultations on matters of mutual interest,” it said.
The call came as over 3,000 people have died in nationwide protests in Iran, according to rights activists. A “very slight rise” in internet activity was also reported in the country after an eight-day blackout.
The United States-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said it had verified 3,090 deaths, including 2,885 protesters, after residents said the crackdown appeared to have broadly quelled protests for now and state media reported more arrests.
The Iranian government has blamed much of the violence on people it says are armed rioters posing as protesters, labelling them “terrorists” and claiming that Israel and the US were behind organising them and responsible for many of the deaths of demonstrators and security forces.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused US President Donald Trump of being responsible for the casualties. “We hold the American president guilty for the casualties, damages and accusations he has levelled against the Iranian nation,” he told a crowd of supporters during an address marking a religious holiday.
“This was an American conspiracy,” he said, adding that “America’s goal is to swallow Iran, the goal is to put Iran back under military, political and economic domination.”
The capital, Tehran, has been comparatively quiet for four days, said several residents reached by Reuters. Drones were flying over the city, but there were no signs of major protests on Thursday or Friday, said the residents, who asked not to be identified for their safety.
The protests erupted on December 28 over economic hardship and swelled into widespread demonstrations calling for the end of clerical rule in the Islamic Republic, culminating in mass violence late last week.
According to opposition groups and an Iranian official, more than 2,000 people were killed in the worst domestic unrest since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“Metrics show a very slight rise in internet connectivity in Iran this morning” after 200 hours of shutdown, the internet monitoring group NetBlocks posted on X. Connectivity remained around 2% of ordinary levels, it said.
The semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that internet service had been restored for some users, while the ISNA news website said SMS service had also been reactivated.
A resident of Karaj, west of Tehran, reached by phone via WhatsApp, said he noticed the internet was back at 4am today. Karaj experienced some of the most severe violence during the protests. The resident, who asked not to be identified, said Thursday was the peak of the unrest there.
A few Iranians overseas said on social media that they had also been able to message users in Iran earlier today.
President Trump, who had threatened “very strong action” if Iran executed protesters, said Tehran’s leaders had called off mass hangings.
“I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (Over 800 of them), have been cancelled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!” he posted on social media.
Iran had not announced plans for such executions nor said it had cancelled them.