Iran should deal decisively with protests, president says By Reuters

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran should deal decisively with protests which have swept the nation after the dying in custody of a girl detained by the Islamic Republic’s morality police, President Ebrahim Raisi stated on Saturday.

At the very least 35 individuals have been killed within the weeklong demonstrations, in response to Iran’s state tv, with protest spreading to many of the nation’s 31 provinces.

On Friday, state-organised rallies passed off in a number of Iranian cities to counter the anti-government protests, and the military promised to confront “the enemies” behind the unrest.

State media quoted Raisi on Saturday as saying Iran should “deal decisively with those that oppose the nation’s safety and tranquillity”.

Raisi was talking by phone to the household of a member of the Basij volunteer pressure killed whereas collaborating within the crackdown on unrest within the northeastern metropolis of Mashhad.

The president “pressured the need to differentiate between protest and disturbing public order and safety, and known as the occasions … a riot,” state media reported.

The protests broke out in northwestern Iran every week in the past on the funeral of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish girl who died after falling right into a coma following her detention by morality police imposing hijab guidelines on girls’s gown.

Her dying has reignited anger over points together with restrictions on private freedoms in Iran, the strict gown codes for girls and an financial system reeling from sanctions.

Girls have performed a outstanding function within the protests, waving and burning their veils. Some have publicly lower their hair as livid crowds known as for the autumn of Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The protests are the biggest to comb the nation since demonstrations over gasoline costs in 2019, when Reuters reported 1,500 individuals had been killed in a crackdown on protesters – the bloodiest confrontation within the Islamic Republic’s historical past.

In neighbouring Iraq, dozens of Iraqi and Iranian Kurds rallied exterior the United Nations compound within the northern metropolis of Erbil on Saturday, carrying placards with Amini’s {photograph} and chanted “Loss of life to the Dictator”, referring to Khamenei.

State tv in Iran, which has blamed armed Iranian Kurdish dissidents of involvement within the unrest, stated Iranian Revolutionary Guards fired artillery on anti-Iranian army bases within the Kurdish area of northern Iraq.

‘DEADLY RESPONSE’

At the very least 3 times this week, cell web has been disrupted in Iran, the NetBlocks watchdog has reported. Activists say the transfer is meant to forestall video footage of the violence reaching the world.

Rights group Amnesty Worldwide stated protesters have confronted a “spiralling lethal response from safety forces over the previous days” and known as for an impartial United Nations “investigative mechanism” to look into this week’s occasions.

On the evening of Sept. 21, shootings by safety forces left at the least 19 individuals lifeless, together with three kids, it stated.

“The rising dying toll is an alarming indication of simply how ruthless the authorities’ assault on human life has been below the darkness of the web shutdown,” Amnesty stated.

The activist Twitter (NYSE:) account 1500tasvir, which has greater than 120,000 followers, stated late on Friday that communication channels with the northwestern city of Oshnavieh had been lower off, and landlines had been down.

Oshnavieh was certainly one of a number of cities in northwest Iran, the place many of the nation’s 10 million Kurds reside, that held a strike on Friday. Kurdish rights group Hengaw posted a video it stated confirmed protesters accountable for components of the city on Friday.

Reuters couldn’t confirm the authenticity of the video.

State tv confirmed footage purporting to indicate calm had returned to many components of the capital Tehran late on Friday.

“However in some western and northern areas of Tehran and sure provinces rioters destroyed public property,” it stated, carrying footage of protesters setting hearth to rubbish bins and a automotive, marching, and throwing rocks.

Twitter account 1500tasvir carried movies of protests close to Tehran college on Saturday. Riot police had been seen clashing with protesters and arresting some.