The death toll from Iran's crackdown on protests is nearing 5,000 dead, according to human rights activists, as US President Donald Trump signals the possibility of dialogue with Tehran.
Human Rights Activists in Iran, a US-based NGO, said on Wednesday that it had confirmed the deaths of 4,902 people, including 4,622 protesters, 40 children, 201 government-affiliated persons, and 39 non-protesters.
The group added that the potential deaths of 9,387 people were being investigated, and that 7,389 people were severely injured, while 26,541 people had been arrested.
Verifying a total death toll has proved difficult due to the country's internet blackout, which has been imposed for over 300 hours, according to internet-monitor Netblocks.
Human rights groups blame Iran's authorities for the high death toll, accusing security forces of firing on protesters with live ammunition.
Iran's government, however, released its own death toll from the protests, saying that 3,117 people had been killed, including 2,427 it labelled as "martyrs", which includes security forces.
The government added that 690 people, labelled as "terrorists, rioters, and those who attacked military sites", were also killed.
The claim comes after Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said "black-clad groups of masked terrorists used rifles and handguns to infiltrate protests and mow down innocent demonstrators on our streets" in a column for the Wall Street Journal.
He reiterated the claims on X, posting a 7-minute video on the protests that linked the violence to a continuation of the 12-day war with Israel.
Iran has taken foreign ambassadors to visit sites damaged during the protests, according to state broadcaster IRIB, which said that the ambassadors of 25 countries, including Turkey, were involved.
Included in the tour were religious sites, buses, and government buildings that were vandalised or set alight during the protests.
Tensions remain between the US, Iran, and Israel - ostensibly over the crackdown; however, Trump has suggested that the US would be open to dialogue.
In comments made at the launch of the so-called "Board of Peace" at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Trump said that the US cannot let Iran attain nuclear weapons, but that "Iran does want to talk, and we'll talk".
The comments come after his repeated threats that he would bomb the country, the latest of which saw him say that "the whole country's going to get blown up" if Iran attempted to assassinate him.
Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, also addressed the situation at the WEF, saying that "the future for the Iranian regime can only be in a regime change".
The commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Mohammad Pakpour, warned that the force has "their finger on the trigger, more prepared than ever, ready to carry out the orders and measures of the supreme commander-in-chief".
He also warned Israel and the US "to avoid any miscalculations, by learning from historical experiences and what they learned in the 12-day imposed war, so that they do not face a more painful and regrettable fate".