Iran accuses Israel, Western spy services of plotting Iranian civil war
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People pass shops which were closed following the recent riots and the call of protesters to close the markets, in Tehran Bazaar on Nov 16, 2022.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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DUBAI - Iran on Thursday accused its archenemy Israel and Western intelligence services of plotting to start a civil war in the Islamic republic, now gripped by some of the biggest anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“Various security services, Israel and some Western politicians who have made plans for civil war, destruction and the disintegration of Iran should know that Iran is not Libya or Sudan,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian tweeted.
Teheran accuses Western adversaries of stoking nationwide unrest, which has been joined by Iranians from all walks of life since the Sept 16 death of young Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.
She died in custody after morality police arrested her for allegedly flouting the Islamic dress code.
Iran was hit by a spate of attacks on Wednesday. Seven people were killed in the south-western city of Izeh in what state media described as a terrorist attack.
In separate violence, gunmen riding a motorcycle shot several members of the security forces in the central city of Isfahan, killing two people and injuring eight, according to state television.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which state TV blamed on “rioters”.
Ms Amini’s death and the protests that followed have drawn international condemnation of Iran’s clerical leadership, which has struggled to suppress the unrest and blamed foreign enemies and their alleged local agents.
Five people detained during protests have been sentenced to death, according to the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency.
Amnesty International, in a Twitter post, said Iranian authorities were seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people “in sham trials designed to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising”.
Meanwhile, street violence raged across Iran as protests sparked by the Sept 16 death of Ms Amini intensified on the anniversary of a lethal 2019 crackdown. “We’ll fight! We’ll die! We’ll take back Iran!” protesters could be heard chanting on a Teheran street, in a video published by the 1500tasvir social media monitor.
In a widely shared video verified by AFP, security forces appear to open fire on dozens of commuters at a Teheran metro station, causing them to scramble and fall over each other on the platform.
Another verified video showed members of the security forces, including plainclothes officers, attacking women without hijab headscarves on an underground train.
Protest organisers have called for three days of actions to commemorate hundreds killed in the “Bloody Aban” (Bloody November) demonstrations that erupted on Nov 15, 2019, after a shock decision to hike fuel prices overnight.
The anniversary gave new momentum to the Amini protests, which have seen women burn their headscarves and confront security forces on the streets.
State media said “rioters” - a term Iranian officials use to describe protesters - killed two members of the Revolutionary Guards and a member of its Basij paramilitary force on Tuesday.
One guard was shot dead in Bukan, a city in Amini’s home province of Kurdistan, and another was gunned down in Kamyaran, a Kurdish-majority city in West Azerbaijan province, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The Basij member died after being hit by a Molotov cocktail in the southern city of Shiraz, it added.
A protester was killed on Wednesday in front of the house of one of three demonstrators shot dead the day before by the security forces in Kurdistan province, Oslo-based rights group Hengaw said.
The death of Mr Burhan Karmi occurred in Kamyaran, where tensions were high for the funeral of mobile phone repair shop owner Fuad Mohammadi, the rights group said.
“Brother Fuad is a hero, the martyr of Kurdistan,” crowds of mourners chanted, in videos posted on social media.
Special forces also opened fire on students on Wednesday after entering Kurdistan University in the flashpoint western city of Sanandaj, Hengaw said.
Security forces have killed at least 342 people, including 43 children and 26 women, in the crackdown since Ms Amini’s death, according to the latest toll released by Iran Human Rights (IHR) on Wednesday.
The rights group also said at least 15,000 people have been arrested – a figure the Iranian authorities deny. REUTERS, AFP
