Protests erupt in Iran’s southwest, authorities threaten crackdown

TEHRAN - Iranian authorities threatened Friday to crack down on mounting protests, which they blamed on “enemies” of the Islamic revolution, one day after they used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in the south-western city of Behbahan.

Videos showed demonstrators chanting slogans challenging authorities’ repressive methods, including: “Don’t be afraid, we are all together.”

Some chanted slogans against top officials. Others targeted Iran’s foreign adventures, shouting: “No Gaza, no Lebanon, I will die for Iran.”

Iran supports proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

There was a heavy presence of forces in many Iranian cities. Internet access in Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province has been disrupted since late Thursday.

In a statement on Friday, the police urged people to “vigilantly refrain from any gathering that could provide a pretext for the counter-revolutionary movement,” accusing “enemies” of whipping up discontent.

“The police force has an inherent and legal duty to deal decisively with these desperate moves,” the statement added.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency said security forces had arrested “key elements of opposition groups… who were encouraging people to protest on Friday in the northeastern Khorasan Razavi province.”

Iranian state media and officials did not acknowledge the protests. Political leaders in Tehran have in recent weeks admitted the risk of protests being sparked by economic hardship, including rising poverty and unemployment compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.

But Iran’s clerical rulers have been trying to prevent a revival of last November’s anti-government protests, when over 1,000 people are believed to have been killed in the deadliest street violence since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Rejection of the death sentences passed against three young demonstrators seems to be among the catalysts for demonsrations.

Iran’s Supreme Court earlier this week upheld the death penalty against Amir Hossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi and Mohammad Rajabi for criminal actions during protests last November sparked by a hike in petrol prices.

Videos from Behbahan and Shiraz, the capital of Fars province, show protesters on the streets chanting against the planned execution of the three men, who are all in their twenties. The first city where protests broke out was Behbahan and shortly after people took to the streets in Shiraz, reported US-financed Radio Farda.

An unprecented social media campaign condemned the death sentences, with a Twitter hashtag “Stop Executions In Iran” reaching a record eight billion views and five million retweets.

A group of UN rights experts called Thursday on Iran to overturn death sentences imposed on the three young men after they were allegedly tortured into making confessions.

“Today we join hundreds of thousands of Iranians on social media who condemned these death sentences,” said the more than a dozen independent UN experts, on issues like arbitrary executions, freedom of assembly and torture.

The experts said the three had confessed after being subjected to torture, including beatings, electric shocks and being hung upside down by their feet.