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Iran on Saturday criticised the international community’s “silence” towards acts of violence in the country during protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death in custody. online news
The Islamic republic has been rocked by protests since the September 16 death of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, after her arrest for an alleged breach of Iran’s dress rules for women.
It has accused its foreign foes, including Britain, Israel and the United States, of fomenting the unrest.
On Saturday, Iran’s foreign ministry hit out at the “deliberate silence of foreign promoters of chaos and violence in Iran in the face of… terrorist operations in several Iranian cities”.
“It is the duty of the international community and international assemblies to condemn the recent terrorist acts in Iran and not to provide a safe haven for extremists,” it said in a statement.
On Wednesday, 10 people including a woman, two children and a security officer were killed in two separate attacks in the cities of Izeh and Isfahan, according to state media and a hospital source.
Two members of Iran’s pro-government Basij paramilitary force were stabbed to death in the northeastern city of Mashhad while trying to intervene against “rioters”, according to state news agency IRNA.
A suspect has been arrested, the judiciary’s website announced.
Enemies
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday vowed “punishment” for “murders” and vandalism during the protests across the country.
He was quoted by state television as saying foreign powers “were trying to get people out on the streets” and “exhaust the authorities”, but said they had failed.
Khamenei said “the enemy” may seek to influence groups in society like women and labourers, but Iranians’ “dignity” would not allow them to “join those who have deceived them”.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian meanwhile reiterated accusations against arch-enemy the United States, as well as Britain, France and Germany, of trying to exert “maximum pressure” on Tehran.
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“In recent days and weeks, the enemies of the Islamic republic have tried to influence the situation in Iran,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
He accused them of supporting actions that “resulted in terrorist attacks” including in the cities of Izeh and Shiraz.
Last week, Amir-Abdollahian accused Western governments of “promoting violence and teaching (protesters) to make weapons and Molotov cocktails via social networks and the media”.
Washington and the three European countries had taken a motion which the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday approved, criticising Iran’s lack of cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.
It was the second resolution of its kind within six months and came during an impasse over undeclared uranium particles found in Iran.
The impasse over the IAEA’s probe comes as wider talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers are stalled.
Amir-Abdollahian on Saturday said that, earlier this month, Iranian officials had held a “constructive meeting” with IAEA chief Rafael Grossi.
“Suddenly, in order to influence the domestic environment and to exert maximum pressure, and in continuation of the extremely hypocritical policy of the United States, they suddenly put a resolution against Iran on the table — and once more abuse of the (IAEA) for political purposes,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
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