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LAST UPDATE | 45 mins ago
MINISTER FOR FOREIGN Affairs Helen McEntee has called on the Iranian government to restore the country’s communications and engage with anti-government protesters, saying she was “deeply concerned” by their treatment at the hands of authorities.
Iranians took to the streets in new protests against the government overnight despite an internet shutdown, as rights groups warned today that authorities were committing a “massacre” to quell the demonstrations.
“Freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and access to information must be fully respected,” McEntee said in a statement this afternoon.
“I call on the Iranian authorities to refrain from any further violence, to restore communications, engage with demonstrators about their grievances and to uphold the fundamental rights of all Iranians.”
The protests, initially sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, have now become a movement against the theocratic government that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution and have been ongoing for two weeks now.
The death toll in the crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has spiked to at least 538 people, activists said.
More than 10,600 people have been detained, said the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Of those killed, 490 are protesters and 48 are members of the security forces, it said, warning the toll is likely to go up.
The mass rallies are one of the biggest challenges to the rule of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in years.
Videos posted to social media showed large crowds taking to the streets in new protests in several Iranian cities, including the capital Tehran and Mashhad in the east, where images showed vehicles set on fire.
The videos filtered out despite a total shutdown of the internet in Iran that has rendered impossible normal communication with the outside world via messaging apps or even phone lines.
The internet blackout “is now past the 60 hour mark… The censorship measure presents a direct threat to the safety and wellbeing of Iranians at a key moment for the country’s future”, monitor Netblocks said this morning.
Several circulating videos, which have not been verified, allegedly showed relatives in a Tehran morgue identifying bodies of protesters killed in the crackdown.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said it had confirmed the deaths of 116 people in connection with the protests, including 37 members of the security forces or other officials.
But activists warned that the shutdown was limiting the flow of information and the actual toll risks being far higher.
The US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said it had received “eyewitness accounts and credible reports indicating that hundreds of protesters have been killed across Iran during the current internet shutdown”.
“A massacre is unfolding in Iran. The world must act now to prevent further loss of life,” it said.
It said hospitals were “overwhelmed”, blood supplies were running low and that many protesters had been shot in the eyes in a deliberate tactic.
In comments to state TV last night, Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni insisted that acts of “vandalism” were decreasing and warned that “those who lead the protest towards destruction, chaos and terrorist acts do not let the people’s voices be heard”.
National police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said authorities made “significant” arrests of protest figures on Saturday night, without giving details on the number or identities of those arrested, according to state TV.
Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani drew a line between protests over economic hardship, which he called “completely understandable”, and “riots”, accusing them of actions “very similar to the methods of terrorist groups”, Tasnim news agency reported.
In Tehran, an AFP journalist described a city in a state of near paralysis.
The price of meat has nearly doubled since the start of the protests, and while some shops are open, many others are not.
Those that do open must close at around 4 or 5 pm, when security forces deploy in force.
On Saturday, mobile phone lines appeared to have gone down as well, rendering nearly all communication impossible.
On the outside looking in, Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the ousted shah, who has played a prominent role in calling for the protests, called for new demonstrations later today.
“Do not abandon the streets. My heart is with you. I know that I will soon be by your side,” he said.
Today, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran would hit back if the US launched military action.
“In the event of a military attack by the United States, both the occupied territory and centres of the US military and shipping will be our legitimate targets,” he said in comments broadcast by state TV.
He was apparently also referring to Israel, which the Islamic republic does not recognise and considers occupied Palestinian territory.
US President Donald Trump has spoken out in support of the protests and threatened military action against Iranian authorities “if they start killing people”.
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous US officials, said on Saturday night that Trump had been given military options for a strike on Iran, but had not made a final decision.
The US state department separately warned: “Do not play games with President Trump. When he says he’ll do something, he means it.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has voiced his support for the protests.
“We all hope that the Persian nation will soon be freed from the yoke of tyranny, and when that day comes, Israel and Iran will once again be loyal partners in building a future of prosperity and peace for both peoples,” he said at a weekly cabinet meeting.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has urged the European Union to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps as a “terrorist organisation” and said Israel supported the Iranian people’s “struggle for freedom”.
Israel once maintained friendly relations with Iran while it was under the rule of the Pahlavi monarchy but nowadays the two states are arch enemies.
The UK’s Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told Sky News today that the British government “has always viewed Iran as a hostile state”.
“We know that they pose a security threat in the Middle East and beyond and we know that they have been a repressive regime in terms of their own population.
“And so I think the priority, as of today, is to try and stem the violence that is happening in Iran at the moment.”
She added: “It’s a concerning situation there and we would like to see anything that happens in future involving a peaceful transition where people can enjoy fundamental freedoms and we see proper democratic values back in the heart of Iran.”
The current Iranian regime came to power during a revolution against the Pahlavi monarchy, which had regained power following a US and UK-orchestrated coup that brought down the democratically elected president Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953.
Mossadegh has sought to take more control of the country’s oil, which was under the control of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later renamed BP).
With reporting from AFP and Press Association
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