Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has yet again denounced the US amid his country’s persevering with anti-authorities protests.
The president visited Tehran University on Wednesday morning, wherein he brought a speech to mark Students’ Day, and reiterated that there has been a difference among protests and “riots” – a phrase government frequently use to explain the country’s unrest, which has lasted near to 3 months.
“The Americans are after destruction and need a destroyed Iran in preference to a sturdy Iran,” he stated. “They need right here to end up Syria and Afghanistan, however they’ve made a mistake of their calculations and the knowledgeable Iranian women and men won’t permit them.”
Raisi mentioned a go to he made final week to the protest-heavy province of Kurdistan, wherein cameras captured him being welcomed through a nearby store proprietor in a market with chocolates.
A video later broadly circulated on social media wherein the person is visible apologising for greeting the president.
“You noticed a person presented me chocolates. The matters they did to that terrible man!” Raisi stated.
“You communicate approximately the problem of dictatorship. Who’s the dictator? The one that imposes such a lot of sanctions towards this country,” he brought in connection with the United States, which has imposed harsh sanctions considering that 2018 after retreating from Iran’s 2015 nuclear address global powers.
The president’s go to got here at the 0.33 and very last day of national protests and moves that had been referred to as anonymously on line.
Videos of sporadic protests have pop out of Tehran and numerous different towns withinside the beyond few days amid lingering net regulations.
Raisi stated on Wednesday the regulations are a reaction to “disturbances and lack of confidence created through enemies” and adjustments might be made when “secure conditions” are restored.
Meanwhile, many movies were posted on line of closed stores in towns throughout the country, that have been countered through many movies launched through state-affiliated media retailers that confirmed stores had been open.
Authorities have again and again claimed that “anti-revolutionary” factors pressure shopkeepers to shut down their groups with threats of bodily violence. The president additionally made this declare all through his college speech.
Many stores, which include numerous owned through soccer legend Ali Daei, were close down through the government for becoming a member of the moves.
Other senior officers, which include judiciary leader Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani visited numerous universities on Tuesday.
Zakani’s go to to the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran became possibly the maximum arguable and confrontational, as he became closely criticised through college students who referred to as him “corrupt”.
When a scholar stated “we need to make a revolution however you won’t allow us”, Zakani paradoxically replied, “that’s child’s play, whilst you need to talk of revolution rub your throat properly so it won’t get caught in there”.
The country’s protests started out quickly after the September sixteen loss of life of Mahsa Amini, a younger Kurdish female who became arrested through morality police for allegedly now no longer adhering to Iran’s obligatory get dressed code.
A senior judiciary authentic stated final week that the morality police have been suspended, however there was no affirmation through police government and no indication that legal guidelines requiring obligatory hijab might be changed.
Iran has stated two hundred humans were killed all through the unrest, that’s decrease than the greater than four hundred determine referred to through some of foreign-primarily based totally rights organisations, who say Iranian safety forces have killed protesters.
Foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian claimed on Tuesday all through a experience to Bosnia and Herzegovina that “police in Iran have now no longer shot all of us and nobody has been killed due to capturing or war of words with police or safety forces”.
However, the sister of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei on Wednesday condemned the crackdown on protesters, in step with a letter launched through her son.
Badri Hosseini Khamenei additionally stated that the country’s elite Revolutionary Guards should “lay down their weapons … and be a part of the humans”.
“I assume it’s far suitable now to claim that I oppose my brother’s moves and I explicit my sympathy with all moms mourning the crimes of the Islamic Republic, from the time of [former Supreme Leader Ruhollah] Khomeini to the present day technology of the despotic caliphate of Ali Khamenei,” Badri Khamenei, who nevertheless lives in Iran, stated withinside the letter posted on her France-primarily based totally son’s Twitter account.
‘Dictated through CIA’
In addition to the United States, pinnacle Iranian officers hold to accuse different Western nations of being in the back of the unrest in Iran.
In an interview with state-run IRNA posted on Wednesday, intelligence minister Esmaeil Khatib best had harsh phrases for European leaders.
About French President Emmanuel Macron, Khatib stated “it’s far not vital for the United States president to provide him directions, due to the fact a corrupt, low-tier CIA intelligence supply dictates what he should say and what positions he should adopt”.
He additionally criticised German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for his feedback in aid of the protests and towards the Islamic republic, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for tweeting approximately a fake declare that Iran should imminently execute 15,000 humans arrested all through the protests.
While the 15,000 determine became fake, Amnesty International warned in advance this month that at the least 28 humans should face execution in Iran in reference to the protests, saying “government use the loss of life penalty as a device of political repression to stop the famous uprising”.
On Tuesday, 5 humans had been sentenced to loss of life and eleven others – which include 3 minors – acquired prolonged jail phrases for allegedly killing a member of the Basij paramilitary pressure all through unrest withinside the metropolis of Karaj final month.
Their sentences are initial and may be appealed, the judiciary stated. However, judiciary leader Mohseni-Ejei had stated in advance this week that “some” of the preceding loss of life sentences doled out for “corruption on Earth” and “waging conflict towards God” with regards to the protests were upheld through the Supreme Court and “might be completed soon”.
Iran on Sunday carried out 4 humans and surpassed jail sentences to 3 others accused of running with Israeli intelligence.