Iran says Britain, US fuelling unrest
IRAN: Iran’s leaders have accused Britain, the United States and Saudi Arabia of fomenting protests in the country as government forces struggle to contain increasingly violent and widespread unrest.
In his first public comments since protests began six days ago, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, blamed the uprising on the ‘‘enemies of Iran’’ and said foreign governments were sending money and weapons to undermine the Islamic republic.
‘‘The enemy is always looking for an opportunity and any crevice to infiltrate and strike the Iranian nation,’’ he said.
At least 21 people have been killed since last Friday, including a police officer and a revolutionary guardsman, and the violence appeared to be intensifying yesterday as security forces fired on crowds and demonstrators attacked police stations.
While Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, initially offered conciliatory words, saying the protesters had legitimate grievances, the government’s stance has hardened.
The head of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court warned that protesters could face the death penalty if convicted of ‘‘moharebeh’’ – waging war against God – while state television said those arrested after the first 48 hours of demonstrations would be treated more severely. About 1000 people have been arrested so far, authorities said.
Kellyanne Conway, US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser, said the White House was considering new sanctions on Iran in response to its crackdown on the protesters. The sanctions would be likely to target the Revolutionary Guard, the regime’s elite forces which also control major business interests.
Nikki Haley, the White House envoy to the United Nations, said the US would convene an emergency UN session on Iran, and dismissed claims of outside influence as ‘‘ridiculous’’.
Ali Shamkhani, one of Iran’s top security officials, said Britain, the US and Saudi Arabia were behind the protests and had generated many of the calls on social media for people to take to the streets.
‘‘What is happening in Iran will be over in a few days, and there is no reason to worry at all,’’ he said.
While the last major protests in 2009 were largely supported by affluent Tehranis angry over disputed election results, the current wave of unrest is spread geographically across the country.
‘‘There is a growing consensus that the protests are comprised primarily of members of the working class, who are most vulnerable to chronic unemployment and rises in the cost of living,’’ said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, of Bourse & Bazaar, an Iran-focused website.
Many protesters said they had taken to the streets out of economic frustration and a sense that the economy was not improving even after the 2015 nuclear deal eased sanctions on Iran.
Some of the worst violence took place in areas that few Iranians had ever heard of, including Qahderijan, a town of just 30,000 people, where six demonstrators were reportedly killed as a crowd attacked a police station.
‘‘The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime,’’ Trump tweeted yesterday. ‘‘All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their ‘pockets.’ The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The US is watching!’’
That was a reference to the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated under Obama, which Trump has called the ‘‘worst deal’’ imaginable for the US. – Telegraph Group, Washington Post