Iran latest: Tehran has 'finger on trigger' after Trump's armada warning

Tomorrow, Europe has a "historic opportunity" to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror group, the president of the European Parliament says.

Roberta Metsola insists the move would be more than just symbolic.

Read her statement here...

A protester in Iran tells Paste BN the government carried out a "massive massacre" during its crackdown on demonstrations.

Speaking on The World With Yalda Hakim, she adds that she "couldn't stay silent" saying: 

"We pray to all gods, [Trump] will do something."

For her own safety, the protester's identity is kept hidden. Watch the full interview here...

Saudi Arabia is in "constant contact" with the US over ongoing developments in the region, an embassy official insists.

A senior official at the embassy in Washington told AP news agency that Saudi Arabia remained aligned with the US, even as it refused to let its airspace be used for any strikes on Iran.

The kingdom has sought to downplay any such divide with the White House and it is one of the nations in contact with both Iran and the US.

Many regionally are hoping diplomacy will prevail and there won't be a repeat of the strikes last June.

China's mission to the UN has called for the US to abandon any "military adventurism" in Iran, saying it will only "push the region into an unpredictable abyss."

Fu Cong, Beijing's ambassador to the UN, addressed the Security Council today regarding the situation in the region.

He warned "war clouds [were] gathering in the Middle East" after the latest threats from Donald Trump.

Cong also stressed that Beijing "opposed interference in other countries' internal affairs".

For context: China has been accused of wanting to meddle in the affairs of another country, Taiwan.

Beijing views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, despite the objections of the government in Taipei.

It has offered Taiwan a "one country, two systems" model, but this position is not supported by any mainstream political party.

Many have raised fears it may try and take the land by force.

There are no negotiations under way between Tehran and Washington but the two sides are sharing "indirect messages", an official says.

One of Iran's deputy foreign ministers, Kazem Gharibabadi, says that before any negotiations take place the US "must stop threatening us".

He adds:

"Even if conditions for negotiation existed, given the United States' history of deception, Tehran will maintain complete preparedness for defence."

The comments appear to refer to the US strikes on Iran's nuclear infrastructure during the 12-day war last June that took place while it was in talks with Tehran.

By Adam Parsons, Middle East correspondent

Europe's most prominent rabbi has told Paste BN he holds Iran responsible for the rise of antisemitism in recent years and believes European countries must do much more to support Iranian protesters in overthrowing the Tehran regime.

Speaking on Holocaust Memorial Day, Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, said anger against Jews had grown to dangerous levels, regardless of their views on politics, religion or the war in Gaza.

He said there was the prospect of "antisemitic acts against Jews who live anywhere in the world, who have nothing to do with the Israeli government and nothing to do with Israel".

France says it will now support branding Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group.

Backing the move to include the IRGC on Europe's list of terror groups marks a U-turn in Paris as it has previously been reluctant to do so.

It comes as EU foreign ministers meet in Brussels on Thursday, where they were already due to sign off new sanctions on Iran.

With France's backing, the decision will likely be approved politically tomorrow.

After the decision was announced, France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot shared a statement adding:

"The unbearable repression of the peaceful uprising of the Iranian people cannot go unanswered. The extraordinary courage they have shown in the face of the blind violence unleashed upon them ‌cannot be in vain."

Set up after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shi'ite clerical ruling system, the IRGC has great sway in the country, controlling swathes of the economy and armed forces, and was put in charge of Iran's ballistic missile and nuclear programmes. 

Speaking of the move, one senior European diplomat told Reuters news agency: "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck and it's good to call that out."

At least 6,000 people, the vast majority protesters, have died in the recent protests in Iran, a human rights group says.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) says there has been at least 6,221 confirmed deaths and 42,324 arrests since protests began in bazaars in Tehran on 28 December.

It says it has recorded 656 protests in 201 cities.

Of the dead, HRANA says 5,858 were protesters, 100 under the age of 18, 214 were affiliated with government security forces and 49 were defined as "non-protester civilians".

It adds that more than 17,000 deaths remain under investigation.

For context: In Iran's internet blackout, and with access now controlled by the regime, it has been difficult to get up-to-date figures on the number of dead and arrested during the government's crackdown.

HRANA gathers its figures by using contacts in Iran to verify deaths. Its figures have proven reliable in past conflicts.

The US secretary of state struck a more moderate tone than Donald Trump on Iran when talking to a Senate committee this afternoon.

We brought you some of Marco Rubio's comments earlier (see our 16.40 post), but in his appearance in front of the Foreign Relations Committee he touched on Iran a few times.

'Wise and prudent'

Rubio said there was no plan to attack Iran, but that the recent build-up of military forces in the region was "wise and prudent".

He told the Senators:

"I think it's wise and prudent to have a force posture within the region that could respond and... if necessary, pre-emptively prevent the attack against thousands of American servicemen and other facilities in the region and our allies."

'Far more complex'

Rubio cautioned a regime change in Iran would be "far more complex" than what Washington achieved in Venezuela.

He also told the committee that "no one knows who would take over" Iran if the country's supreme leader were removed.

"I don't think anyone can give you a simple answer as to what happens next."

Donald Trump's "armada" post is the latest development as tensions between the US and Iran have been growing since the start of the year.

It began with protests by Iranian shopkeepers against the rising cost of living at the end of last year.

Here is a rundown of everything that has happened since...