Iran’s president has called on his nation to “deal decisively with those who oppose the country’s security and tranquillity”, according to state media.
His call comes as mass protests continue to sweep through the Middle Eastern state after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was detained by the Islamic republic’s morality police.
Though official fatality figures are yet to be released, state broadcasters estimate that at least 41 people have been killed in the unrest, which saw demonstrations flare up in most of the country’s 31 provinces.
Raisi’s remarks arrived during a telephone conversation with the family of a member of the Basij volunteer militia group who was killed during a protest crackdown in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
According to state media, the president “stressed the necessity to distinguish between protest and disturbing public order and security, and called the events... a riot”.
Fierce protests erupted in northwestern Iran a week ago at the funeral of Amini, who died after falling into a coma following her detention in Tehran by morality police enforcing hijab rules.
Women have played a prominent role in the protests, waving and burning their veils. Some have publicly cut their hair – an act that has also taken centre stage at demonstrations throughout the world – as furious crowds called for the fall of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A series of state-organised rallies took place in several Iranian cities on Friday to counter the anti-government protests, and the army promised to confront “the enemies” behind the unrest.
In neighbouring Iraq, dozens of Iraqi and Iranian Kurds rallied outside the United Nations compound in the northern city of Erbil on Saturday, carrying placards with Amini’s photograph and chanting “death to the dictator”, referring to Khamenei.
State television in Iran, which has accused armed exiled Iranian Kurdish dissidents of involvement in the unrest, said Iranian Revolutionary Guards had fired artillery on the bases of Kurdish opposition groups in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
At least three times this week, mobile internet has been disrupted in Iran, the NetBlocks watchdog has reported. Activists say the move is intended to prevent video footage of the violence reaching the world.
Human rights group Amnesty International said protesters faced a “spiralling deadly response from security forces” and called for an independent United Nations investigation.
On the night of 21 September, shootings by security forces left at least 19 people dead, including three children, it said.
“The rising death toll is an alarming indication of just how ruthless the authorities’ assault on human life has been under the darkness of the internet shutdown,” Amnesty International said.
State television broadcast footage purporting to show calm had returned to many parts of Tehran late on Friday.
“But in some western and northern areas of Tehran and certain provinces, rioters destroyed public property,” it said, carrying footage of protesters setting fire to garbage bins and a car, marching and throwing rocks.
