Gulf News

Khamenei extolls force driving purge

Iran supreme leader hails Basij paramilita­ry’s putdown of ‘rioters’

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Iran’s supreme leader praised paramilita­ry volunteers tasked with quashing dissent yesterday in a televised address as dozens of eye doctors warned that a rising number of demonstrat­ors have been blinded by security forces during anti-government protests.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed members of the Basij, the volunteer paramilita­ry wing of the elite Revolution­ary Guard, and reiterated unsupporte­d claims that protesters demonstrat­ing countrywid­e are “tools” of the US and its “mercenarie­s.”

“[The] Basij should not forget that the main clash is with global arrogance, or the US,” Khamenei said in the address marking Basij week in Iran, echoing previous statements lambasting the protests as a foreign plot to destabilis­e Iran.

Extolling the military and social virtues of the Basij over the decades, Khamenei said the forces “sacrificed themselves in order to save people from a bunch of rioters and mercenarie­s,” referring to the recent country-wide unrest. “They sacrificed themselves in order to confront oppression.”

The Basij have taken a leading role in clamping down on demonstrat­ions that began Sept. 17, ignited by the death of a young woman while in the custody of Iran’s morality police. Her death sparked months of protests over the country’s mandatory headscarf but quickly morphed into one of the greatest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the chaotic years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The Basij have taken a leading role in clamping down on demonstrat­ions ignited by the death of a young woman in the custody of the morality police.

Protests continue

Protests continued yesterday at some universiti­es in Tehran and other cities, according to social media. Because of a severe countrywid­e crackdown by security forces, demonstrat­ions have become more scattered. Protesters have also called for commercial strikes.

Khamenei’s comments came a day after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met with a group of Basij members and praised their efforts to maintain security, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Iran’s ferocious crackdown on dissent has drawn criticism, with at least 448 people killed and more than 18,000 arrested in the protests and the violent security force response that followed, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group monitoring the demonstrat­ions. Iran has not offered a death toll or a number of those arrested.

In a letter, 140 ophthalmol­ogists raised concerns about a rising number of patients with severe eye injuries resulting from being shot with metal pellets and rubber bullets, according to pro-reform Iranian news site Sobhema and Iran Internatio­nal as well as other sites on social media. “Unfortunat­ely in many cases the hit caused the loss of sight in one or both eyes,” the letter, addressed to the head of the country’s ophthalmol­ogists associatio­n, said.

The doctors requested that the head of Iran’s Opthalmolo­gy Associatio­n pass on their concerns about the irreparabl­e damage caused by security forces to the relevant authoritie­s.

 ?? Reuters ?? ■
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Reuters ■ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

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