Iran has accused the US and Israel of planning the violent protests that have gripped the nation after a woman was killed in custody after being arrested by “morality police” for not wearing her hijab properly.
Unrest flares up across the country for a third week despite government efforts to crack down on the unrest.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today publicly responded to Iran’s biggest protests in years, breaking weeks of silence to blame his enemies.
Speaking to a cadre of police students in Tehran, Khamenei said he was “heartbroken” at the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody, calling it a “sad incident”.
However, he strongly condemned the protests as a foreign conspiracy to destabilize Iran, echoing the authorities’ earlier comments.
Iran has accused the US and Israel of planning the violent protests that have gripped the nation
Pro-government protesters burn depictions of the British, Israeli and US flags during a rally
Iranian students try to open the entrance gate of Isfahan University in downtown Islamic Republic
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reviews the armed forces during a graduation ceremony for the armed forces officers’ universities today
Amini was pronounced dead on September 16, days after the notorious Morality Police arrested the Kurdish Iranian for allegedly breaking rules forcing women to wear hijab headscarves and modest clothing.
Khamenei said: “These riots were planned. These riots and insecurities were designed by America and the Zionist regime and their employees.’
He added: “The duty of our security forces, including the police, is to ensure the security of the Iranian nation.
“Those who attack the police leave Iranian citizens defenseless against thugs, robbers and blackmailers.”
Security forces, including police and the Basij volunteer militia, have led a crackdown on the protests, which has left thousands arrested and hundreds injured, according to rights groups, which put the death toll at over 130.
Iranian authorities have reported that many members of the security forces were killed during the unrest, which has turned into the largest opposition demonstration against the Iranian authorities in years, with many calling for the end of more than four decades of Islamic clerical rule.
Iran today closed its cutting-edge university after an hours-long standoff between students and police that turned the prestigious institution into the latest focus of protests and ended with the arrests of hundreds of young people.
People walk in clashes with riot police as students protest in Tehran following the death of Mahsa Amini
Iranian women walk on a street today in the third week of violent protests in Tehran
Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology announced that after hours of unrest on Sunday night when witnesses said anti-government protesters were clashed with hardline pro-establishment students, only graduate students would be allowed on campus until further notice.
“Woman, life, freedom,” the students shouted. “Students prefer death to humiliation,” reported the Mehr news agency.
Iran’s Science Minister Mohammad Ali Zolfigol came to speak with the students to calm the situation, the report said.
The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights released videos that appear to show police officers on motorbikes chasing students running through an underground parking lot and picking off detainees whose heads are covered with black cloth bags.
In a clip recorded at a Tehran subway station, according to IHR, a crowd can be heard shouting, “Don’t be afraid! No fear! We are all together!’
Public anger has been growing since authorities announced the death earlier this month
People gather during a protest for Ms Amini, who was allegedly arrested for breaking Tehran’s strict dress code
Mahsa Amini died in custody on September 16 after being arrested by Iran’s Morality Police in Tehran
“Hard to bear what is happening at #Sharif University in #Iran,” tweeted Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. “The courage of the Iranians is unbelievable. And the regime’s brute force is an expression of sheer fear of the power of education and freedom.”
The witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said police holed up hundreds of students on campus and fired tear gas to break up the demonstrations.
The university’s student union said police and plainclothes officers surrounded the school from all sides and arrested at least 300 students as protests roiled the campus after dark.
Plainclothes officers beat a professor and several university employees, the association reported.
The state news agency IRNA tried to downplay the violent standoff by reporting that a “protest rally” took place and ended without casualties.
Iran’s latest protest movement, which has spawned some of the country’s most widespread unrest in years, emerged in response to Amini’s death after her arrest for allegedly violating the country’s strict Islamic dress code.
A protester raises his arms and makes the victory sign during a protest for Mahsa Amini in Tehran this week
However, it has become an open challenge to the Iranian leadership, with chants of “death to the dictator” echoing from the streets and balconies after dark.
The demonstrations tapped into a deep source of grievances in Iran, including the country’s social restrictions, political repression and ailing economy that have long been stifled by American sanctions.
Protests, with women burning their state-mandated headscarves and crowds demanding the overthrow of ruling clerics, have continued in Tehran and faraway provinces, despite authorities restricting internet access to the outside world and blocking social media apps.
In his comments on Monday, Khamenei condemned scenes in which protesters tore off their hijabs and set fire to mosques, banks and police cars as “actions that are not normal, unnatural”.
Security forces have responded with tear gas, metal pellets and, in some cases, live fire, according to human rights groups and widely circulated footage, although the extent of the crackdown remains unclear.
Scores of people have been arrested, with local officials reporting at least 1,500 arrests.
Security forces have detained dozens of artists and activists who have expressed their support for the protests, as well as dozens of journalists in the mounting dragnet manhunt.
Tens of thousands of people – including many women – have taken to the streets in more than 100 cities across Iran, angry at their deaths and over four decades of oppression
Most recently, the authorities arrested Alborz Nezami, a reporter for a business newspaper in Tehran, on Sunday.
Khamenei said those who foment unrest to “sabotage” the country deserve harsh prosecution and punishment.
Young people who are “excited to come onto the streets after looking at something on the internet”, he added, should be “disciplined”.
According to eyewitnesses, most of the protesters appear to be under the age of 25 – Iranians who grew up with global isolation and severe Western sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program.
Talks to revive the landmark 2015 nuclear deal have stalled for months, fueling public discontent as Iran’s currency depreciates and prices soar.
As the new academic year began this week, students gathered in protest at universities across Iran, according to videos widely shared on social media, chanting anti-government slogans and condemning security forces’ crackdowns on protesters.
Universities in major cities like Isfahan in central Iran, Mashhad in the north-east and Kermanshah in the west have held protests, with crowds of students clapping, singing and burning headscarves.
“Don’t call it a protest, it’s a revolution now,” chanted students at Shahid Beheshti University in the capital, Tehran, as women took off their hijabs and set them on fire to protest Iran’s law requiring women to cover their hair .
“Students are awake, they hate the leadership!” crowds of students chanted at the University of Mazandaran in the north of the country.
The eruption of student anger has troubled the Islamic Republic since at least 1999, when security forces and supporters of hardliners attacked students protesting media restrictions.
This wave of student protests under former reformist President Mohammad Khatami sparked the worst street clashes since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.