German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday that Iran’s leadership faces mounting pressure as U.S. President Donald Trump renewed threats of intervention following the crackdown on protesters.
"A regime that can only hold onto power through sheer violence and terror against its own population: its days are numbered," Merz said at a press conference alongside Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan.
"It could be a matter of weeks, but this regime has no legitimacy to govern the country," Merz added.
A reported death toll in the thousands during recent demonstrations "shows that the mullahs' regime can apparently only cling to power through sheer terror," the chancellor said.
One rights group – the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – said that it had verified over 6,200 deaths, mostly of protesters killed by security forces, in the wave of demonstrations that rocked the clerical leadership since late December but peaked on Jan. 8-9.
Activists say the actual toll could be many times higher, with an internet shutdown still complicating efforts to confirm information about the scale of the killings.
Merz also threw his weight behind Italy's push to have the European Union designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.
"I very much regret that there are still one or two countries in the European Union that are not yet prepared" to support such a designation, Merz said.
