Pallade Veneta - Iran says would respond 'ferociously' to any US attack

Tehran and Washington's threats came as both sides worked to reach a deal in indirect talks due to restart in Switzerland on Thursday.

As Iran grappled with US pressure backed by a buildup of military force in the Middle East, university students started a new semester with anti-government protests, reviving slogans from nationwide protests that peaked in January and which were met by a deadly crackdown.

Trump last week said he was weighing a limited strike if Iran did not cut a deal, but Tehran's foreign ministry reiterated Monday that any strike, even limited, "would be regarded as an act of aggression. Period".

"And any state would react to an act of aggression as part of its inherent right of self-defence ferociously so that's what we would do," ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said at a briefing in Tehran attended by an AFP journalist.

Iran has been working on a plan for an agreement on its nuclear programme, and said it would be ready to deliver a draft proposal to mediators in coming days.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is for civilian use but the West believes it is aimed at building an atomic bomb.

And while Iran has insisted the talks with the US focus solely on its nuclear programme, Washington also wants to discuss Tehran's missiles and its support for militant groups in the region.

Trump said on Thursday Iran had at most 15 days to make a deal, suggesting the United States would attack if it did not using the arsenal of aircraft and ships built up in the region in recent weeks.

- 'Diplomatic solution' -

The two countries concluded a second round of indirect talks in Switzerland last week under Omani mediation and were due to continue on Thursday, a schedule confirmed by Iran and Oman but not yet by the US.

In an interview with Fox News broadcast over the weekend, US negotiator Steve Witkoff said Trump was wondering why Iran has not "capitulated" in the face of Washington's military deployment.

Baqaei responded Monday by saying that Iranians had never capitulated at any point in their history.

The European Union, which has been sidelined in mediation on Iran, called for a diplomatic solution ahead of the talks.

"We don't need another war in this region," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. "It is true that Iran is at its weakest point that they have been. We should be really using this time to find a diplomatic solution."

Iran's clerical authorities have faced recent steep challenges, including the recent mass protests, last year's 12-day war with Israel, and the weakening of Iran's regional proxies.

- Flags burned -

On Monday videos geolocated by AFP and circulated on social media showed students at a university in Tehran burning the Iranian flag adopted by the Islamic republic after the 1979 revolution that toppled the monarchy.

The crowd of mostly women in the video chanted "down with the Islamic republic", echoing chants against the supreme leader and clerical authorities during the protests that were sparked in December over prolonged economic strain in the sanctions-hit country.

The protests that peaked on January 8 and 9 were put down by security forces with violence that left thousands dead. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has recorded more than 7,000 killings, the vast majority protesters, though rights groups say the toll is likely far higher.

Authorities acknowledge more than 3,000 deaths, including security forces and bystanders, but say the violence was caused by "terrorist acts" fuelled by Iran's enemies the United States and Israel that they say hijacked legitimate economic protests.

University rallies were held by both pro- and anti-government groups to commemorate those killed in the protest wave, with videos also showing people burning Israeli and US flags as well as scuffles breaking out between groups.

The Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO said gatherings were taking place at universities across the country against the authorities and that students had clashed with plainclothes members of the Basij -- the youth militia of Iran's ideological army the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), accused by rights groups of taking a frontline role in the deadly crackdown last month.

Concerns over a US-Iran conflict have prompted several foreign countries to urge their citizens to leave Iran, with India on Monday joining Sweden, Serbia, Poland and Australia in calling for its citizens to leave.

F.Amato--PV