Iran updates: Tehran warns of fast trials, executions

Iran's judiciary has signaled that swift trials and executions are coming for people detained in nationwide protests, despite warnings from US President Donald Trump.

Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei made the remarks in a video released by Iranian state television on Wednesday.

His comments came as activists warned that executions could be imminent. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 2,571 people have been killed in a bloody security force crackdown, a toll that exceeds any other protest unrest in Iran in decades and evokes the turmoil surrounding the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Trump has repeatedly warned the United States could take military action over the killing of peaceful protesters, just months after US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites during a 12-day war launched by Israel in June.

Mohseni-Ejei said the judiciary must act quickly. "If we want to do a job, we should do it now. If we want to do something, we have to do it quickly," he said.

"If it becomes late, two months, three months later, it doesn’t have the same effect. If we want to do something, we have to do that fast."

Iran airs wave of protester confessions amid crackdown

A US-based rights group, Human Rights Activists News Agency, says state media in Iran has aired at least 97 confession videos since protests began on December 28.

Iranian state television has broadcast a growing number of confession videos showing detained protesters handcuffed, with their faces blurred, as authorities intensify a crackdown on nationwide unrest.

The videos, aired by Iranian state media, feature dramatic background music and are intercut with footage that appears to show protesters attacking security forces, setting fires, or damaging property. Some segments display crude homemade weapons that authorities claim were used in the alleged attacks. Others highlight suspects in grainy surveillance footage.

Iranian officials say the confessions — many of which reference Israel or the United States — prove that foreign powers are behind the protests. Activists, however, describe the broadcasts as coerced confessions, a practice long associated with Iran’s hard-line state television, the country’s only legal broadcaster.

Based on testimony from former detainees, the group says such confessions are often obtained through psychological or physical torture and can carry grave consequences, including the death penalty.

“These rights violations compound on top of each other and lead to horrible outcomes,” said Skylar Thompson, the group’s deputy director. “This is a pattern that’s been implemented by the regime time and time again.”

Rights monitors say the pace of the broadcasts is unprecedented. Thompson said nearly 100 confessions aired over roughly two weeks marks an unusually rapid escalation.

Iran-US contacts halted as tensions rise over protests, report

Direct communications between Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araqchi and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff have been suspended, a senior official has told the Reuters news agency.

The reported halt followed threats by US President Donald Trump to intervene as nationwide protests continue in Iran.

The official said US threats were undermining diplomatic efforts and that possible meetings aimed at finding a diplomatic solution to the decades-long nuclear dispute had been canceled.

Reuters also said it had learned that Iran has warned regional countries it would strike US military bases on their territory if the United States attacks Iran.

The official said Tehran had delivered the message to countries including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Turkey, urging them to prevent Washington from launching an attack.