The Guardian:

Patrick Wintour
Diplomatic editor

Donald Trump has said a US “armada” is heading towards the Middle East and that the US is monitoring Iran closely, as activists put the death toll from Tehran’s bloody 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 to 5,002 – comprising 4,716 demonstrators, 203 government-affiliated people, 43 children and 40 civilians not taking part in the protests.

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 UN Human Rights Council is meeting in Geneva to discuss the crackdown on the protests, which started on 28 December when traders took to the streets in Tehran in response to a sudden dip in the value of the rial. Protests spread and 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.

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