IRAN: Anti-govt protests enters day 6 despite claims unrest is over

Despite claims by General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), that unrest in the country is over, thousands have continued to march through the streets in the country as anti-government protests persist.

“Today we can announce the end of the sedition,” Jafari said, quoted on the Guards’ website.

“A large number of the trouble-makers at the centre of the sedition, who received training from counter-revolutionaries … have been arrested and there will be firm action against them,” he added.

However, that was not the case as thousands continued to march through the streets to protests against rising food and fuel prices.

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The demonstrations which has been largely violent has thus far claimed no less than 22 lives with state media reporting the arrests of at least 530 people: 450 in Iran’s capital, Tehran, and 80 in the central city of Arak.

In a related development, the United States has dismissed claims made by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader who pointed accusing fingers at its ‘enemies’ for sparking days of violent protests in the country.

Such claims were dismissed by the US as “complete nonsense” after Khamenei had made the accusation in his first comments on the protests.

Nikki Haley, US envoy to the UN said the protests which has claimed 22 lives thus far were “spontaneous”, adding that the US planned to call an emergency UN meeting on the situation.

 

 

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