President Donald Trump said the U. may meet Iranian officials and was in contact with the opposition, as he weighed a range of strong responses including military options to a violent crackdown on Iranian protests which pose one of the biggest challenges to clerical rule since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran has warned it will retaliate if attacked by the US, as BBC sources and activists report hundreds of protesters have now been killed in an escalating government crackdown.

At least 116 people have been killed in the anti-government across Iran, according to data published on Saturday by the Human Rights Activists News Agency.

"There are further indications that the ongoing protests are challenging the ability and willingness of Iranian security forces to crack down on the protests."

President Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene if Iran's leaders, facing their biggest anti-government protests since 2022, use force against demonstrators.

Demonstrations broke out in Iran on Dec. 28 and have spread nationwide as protesters vent their increasing discontent over the Islamic Republic’s faltering economy and the collapse of its currency.

More than 570 protests have taken place across all of Iran’s 31 provinces. The death toll has reached at least 116 with more than 2,600 arrests.

In a serious challenge to Iran’s authoritarian government, angry protests have spread from the markets and universities of major cities to the impoverished towns in the hinterland.