As the regime's crackdown continues, Trump claims that an American "armada" is approaching Iran.

 Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has blamed President Donald Trump for weeks of protests after rights groups said a violent crackdown by security forces had claimed thousands of lives.  The economic hardship-related protests began on December 28 and grew into widespread demonstrations calling for the Islamic Republic's clerical rule to end.

Friday, Iran's top prosecutor called the United States The numerous assertions made by President Donald Trump that he halted the hanging of 800 detained protesters were "completely false." At least 5,032 people have died as a result of a bloody crackdown on nationwide demonstrations, according to activists. Activists worry that many more people are dead. As the longest internet blackout in Iran's history reaches two weeks, they struggle to verify information. As an American aircraft carrier group moves closer to the Middle East, tensions between Iran and the United States remain high. In remarks to journalists late on Thursday, Trump compared the move to an "armada." Despite Trump's repeated warnings to Tehran, analysts say that a military buildup could give him the option to launch strikes. Until now, he has avoided doing so. One of his red lines for using military force was to kill a lot of prisoners, and the other was to kill peaceful protesters.

According to an analysis released on Friday by the Soufan Center, a think tank with its headquarters in New York, "While President Trump now appears to have backtracked, likely under pressure from regional leaders and cognizant that airstrikes alone would be insufficient to implode the regime, military assets continue to be moved into the region, indicating kinetic action may still happen."

Without elaborating on the source of the claim, Trump has repeatedly stated that Iran halted the execution of 800 people detained during the protests. That was categorically denied by Iran's top prosecutor, Mohammad Movahedi, in remarks made public by the judiciary's Mizan news agency on Friday.

Movahedi stated, "This claim is completely false; no such number exists and the judiciary has not made any such decision."

His remarks suggested that Abbas Araghchi, the head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, might have offered Trump that amount. Araghchi has had a direct line to U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and conducted multiple rounds of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program with him.

 Movahedi stated, "We do not, under any circumstances, take instructions from foreign powers." He added, "We have a separation of powers, the responsibilities of each institution are clearly defined."

Some detained individuals have been referred to as "enemies of God" by officials in the judiciary. The death penalty is available for that charge. In 1988, it had been used in conjunction with other methods to carry out at least 5,000 mass executions. At a U.N.  Human Rights Council special session on Iran held in Geneva Friday, Volker Türk, the U.N.’s high commissioner for human rights, expressed concern over “contradictory statements from the Iranian authorities about whether those detained in connection with the protests may be executed.”

 He stated that Iran "remains among the top executioner states in the world." Last year, at least 1,500 people were said to have been executed, which is 50% more than in 2024. In the meantime, Friday prayer leader Mohammad Javad Haji Ali Akbari in Tehran mocked Trump, describing him as a "yellow-faced, yellow-haired and disgraced man" who is "like a dog that only barks." In remarks broadcast by Iranian state radio, the cleric stated, "That foolish man has resorted to threatening the nation, especially over what he said about Iran's leader." "All of your interests and bases in the region would become clear and precise targets of Iranian forces if any harm were to occur,"

The European Parliament's Thursday resolution condemning "repression and mass murders being perpetrated by the Iranian regime against protesters in Iran" sparked outrage from the Iranian foreign ministry. The resolution pleaded with the European Council to designate Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which played a crucial role in putting an end to the nationwide protests, as a terrorist organization and demanded that those detained be released. The foreign ministry expressed “its strong revulsion at the insulting assertions” of the resolution.  “Any illegal or interventionist decision or position concerning the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the country's security defenders will be met with reciprocal action by Iran, and responsibility for the consequences will rest with those who initiate such actions,” the organization stated in a statement that was released on Friday.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency, which is based in the United States, provided the most recent death toll, stating that more than 4,700 of the deceased were demonstrators. In addition, a growing campaign of arrests had resulted in the detention of over 27,600 individuals.

The figures provided by the group have proven to be accurate during previous uprisings and rely on a network of Iranian activists to verify deaths. This death toll recalls the chaos surrounding Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and is higher than any other protest or unrest wave there in decades. On Wednesday, the Iranian government provided its initial death toll, reporting 3,117 deaths. In addition, it stated that “terrorists” accounted for the remaining 2,427 deaths from the demonstrations that began on December 28. Iran's theocracy has in the past either undercounted or not reported unrest-related deaths. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll, in part because of authorities cutting access to the internet and blocking international calls into the country.

 US warships on the move

 In the meantime, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and the warships that accompany it from the South China Sea have been moved by the American military toward the Middle East. A U.S.  A Navy official said on Thursday that the Lincoln strike group is in the Indian Ocean. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements. Trump stated on Air Force One on Thursday that the United States is moving its ships toward Iran "just in case" he wishes to take action. Trump stated, "We have a huge fleet heading that way, and maybe we won't have to use it."

Prior to Israel's 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in June, during which U.S. warplanes bombed Iranian nuclear sites, Trump also mentioned the numerous rounds of talks American officials had with Iran regarding its nuclear program. He said that Iran would take military action that would "look like peanuts" compared to previous American strikes on its uranium enrichment sites. Trump stated, "They should have made a deal before we hit them." The U.K.  Separately, the Defense Ministry stated that Qatar's 12 Squadron, a joint Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet unit, "deployed to the (Persian) Gulf for defensive purposes noting regional tensions."