The White House on Monday ramped up threats to attack Iran while President Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on countries doing business with the Islamic Republic, where the death toll from two weeks of protests against economic hardship exacerbated by US sanctions and government repression rose to at least 599 people.
While Trump acknowledged that Iranian leaders want to negotiate with the United States to avoid renewed US attacks on the country like last summer’s airstrikes targeting nuclear facilities and scientists, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that the president reserves all options, including military force, amid Tehran’s deadly crackdown on protesters.
“Airstrikes would be one of the many, many options that are on the table for the commander-in-chief,” Leavitt said. “Diplomacy is always the first option for the president.”
In an ominous development, the virtual US Embassy for Iran on Monday advised all Americans to “leave Iran now” and “have a plan for departing Iran that does not rely on US government help.”
In a Monday post on his Truth Social network, Trump said: “Effective immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America. This Order is final and conclusive.”
Trump’s escalation of sanctions will make life even harder for millions of Iranians.Under the guise of caring about Iranian people, the US is suffocatating Iran to justify bombings & regime change.
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— CODEPINK (@codepink.bsky.social) January 12, 2026 at 2:38 PM
This followed Friday’s threat by Trump that the US is “locked and loaded” for attacks on Iran if the country’s security forces keep killing protesters. At least 599 people have been killed during the demonstrations, even as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed Monday that “the situation has come under total control."
The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) said in a statement Monday that “as Iranian Americans, we are horrified by the images and reports emerging from Iran showing brutal state violence inflicted on civilians to suppress their protests and demands.”
“We condemn the Iranian government’s crackdown on peaceful protestors in the strongest possible terms and urge for accountability for what, according to the information we are receiving, appears to have been a massacre,” NIAC continued.
“We continue to reject the prospect of the US answering the Iranian government’s brutality with bombing," the group stressed. “Military interventions have not brought democracy, human rights, or prosperity to the targets of prior interventions, including Iraq, Libya, Palestine, and Afghanistan.”
“Iran’s long history is riddled with examples of external interventions and military actions that have only robbed Iranians of their agency to decide their future,” NIAC added. “The future of Iran must be shaped by Iranians, not by repression, foreign militarism, or those seeking to exploit suffering to justify war. There is no credible case that US military intervention would protect Iranian lives.”
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