U.S. Shifts Forces and Imposes New Sanctions as Iran’s Crackdown Quiets Protests

Overview

• The Pentagon has begun moving the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group from the South China Sea toward the U.S. Central Command region, a transit expected to take about a week, with additional aircraft and air defenses slated to flow in from Europe.
• At a UN Security Council session, U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz said all options remain on the table, while Iran’s representative Gholamhossein Darzi warned of a decisive legal response to any aggression and Russia condemned U.S. intentions.
• The U.S. Treasury announced targeted sanctions on Ali Larijani and senior security figures tied to the crackdown, along with entities linked to Iran’s shadow banking networks.
• Rights groups and media tallies cite between roughly 2,400 and 12,000 dead since late December, with NetBlocks documenting more than 180 hours of nationwide internet shutdown as protests appear to recede under heavy security deployment.
• Reports carried chiefly by BBC Persian describe families being charged large sums or pressured to label victims as regime-aligned to retrieve bodies, with verification constrained by the blackout and restricted access.