ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran will show “no mercy” to its enemies, the Islamic Republic’s president said on Tuesday, adding that its enemies’ attempt at causing riots has been a unsuccessful approach.
Attending a funeral procession carrying the remains of 200 missing Iranian soldiers killed during the eight-year war with neighboring Iraq four decades ago, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi slammed the nationwide protest movement as being a product of hostile states.
“If you think you can achieve your goals by creating rumors and riots, this experience has been unsuccessful,” Raisi said, adding that the latest “riots” were a product of “hypocrisy, monarchism, and anti-revolutionaries”.
The remarks from the Iranian President come at a time when Iran continues its violent crackdown on the protests that broke out in the country in September following the death of young Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini while in police custody.
At least 507 protesters, including 69 children, have been killed and over 18,500 have been arrested since the protests began over three months ago, according to US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
Eleven death sentences have been issued by an Iranian court over the protests, the majority being related to the alleged targeting of Basij members, the militia of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Two protesters have already been publicly executed.
Addressing those the Iranian government believes to be behind the current protests, Raisi vowed no mercy.
“We know you; we also know our nation. The arms of the nation are open to all those who were deceived. They are the youth of this country. But we will not show mercy to the enemies,” he said.
Tehran has become significantly more vocal against the west in recent days. The country’s theocratic government often sees western super powers as an enemy of the Islamic revolution.
The spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry on Tuesday criticized the international community over quelling protests, saying those who “falsely” accuse the Islamic republic of violent crackdowns, carry out the same treatment against their own people.
“All the accusations that some regimes falsely bring to Iran, they themselves have perpetrated against their nations and people in the most heinous way throughout history and in contemporary history and are still doing so,” read a tweet from Nasser Kanaani, spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry, on Tuesday without specifically mentioning France but attaching multiple images depicting French police attacking protesters.
Kanaani earlier on Sunday called on France to exercise restraint in dealing with protesters, a move seen by the public as hypocritical, given Tehran’s treatment of protestors at home.
