Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi spoke with Foreign Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday, with the two discussing the unrest in Iran amid rising tensions in Tehran.
“I received a call from Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi. @araghchi. We discussed the evolving situation in and around Iran,” Jaishankar said on X.
Meanwhile, Iran’s embassy in India said the United States’ unilateral actions against the current global order, such as the imposition of what it called unfair tariffs and the withdrawal of 66 international institutions, have brought the world closer to the collapse of established global norms. She warned that silence or inaction does not reduce these risks, but rather exacerbates them, adding that such policies will ultimately affect every country, regardless of its size or economic strength.
The development comes as the United States is withdrawing some personnel from military bases in the Middle East, a US official said on Wednesday, after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned neighboring countries that it would attack US bases if Washington attacked.
As Iran’s leadership struggles to quell what it describes as the most serious domestic unrest in the country’s history, Tehran is also trying to fend off US President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to intervene in support of anti-government protesters.
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According to a Reuters report, a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the withdrawal of personnel from key regional bases was a precautionary move in response to heightened tensions.
Two European officials said US military intervention now appeared likely, with one suggesting it could happen within the next 24 hours. An Israeli official also said Trump appeared to have already decided to intervene, although the extent and timing remained unclear.
Qatar said the reductions at Al Udeid Air Base, the largest US military installation in the region, were “implemented in response to current regional tensions”.
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According to three diplomats, some employees were instructed to leave the base. But there were no immediate signs of a mass evacuation, such as the transfer of troops to a soccer stadium or shopping mall that occurred hours before last year’s Iranian missile attack.
Trump has repeatedly warned that he could step in to support protesters in Iran. An Iranian official said more than 2,000 people were killed, while a human rights organization put the death toll at more than 2,600.
Both Iranian and Western governments have characterized the unrest, which began two weeks ago as protests over severe economic hardship and has rapidly intensified in recent days, as the most violent upheaval since the 1979 Islamic revolution that installed Iran’s clerical system.
Iran has “never faced such a scale of destruction”, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Abdolrahim Mousavi said on Wednesday, blaming the violence on foreign adversaries. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called it “the most violent repression in Iran’s modern history”.
Iranian officials have accused the United States and Israel of fomenting the unrest, which they say was caused by armed terrorists.
