Iran crisis: Apparently massive violence against students - EU is probably working on sanctions against regime representatives
Created: 04/10/2022 05:07
By: Bettina Menzel
The protests in Iran continue, but according to one report they are currently unable to overthrow the regime.
News ticker.
Khamenei
on
Iran protests
: Are US-Israeli conspiracy
"Civil war-like" conditions
at
Iran protests
: Security forces seal off university
Students
protest in
Iran
: Police use tear gas
This
news ticker
on the
Iran crisis
is continuously updated.
Update from October 3, 5:13 p.m .:
The wave of protests in Iran is not abating.
According to local media reports, security forces at Sharif University in the capital Tehran used massive violence against students who were demonstrating against the repressive Islamic system on Monday night.
According to the Iranian news portal Emtedad
, several professors at the elite university were also
beaten.
The EU could soon react with sanctions against the leadership of the Islamic Republic.
In this regard, Germany is working together with France, Denmark, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic.
According to the Foreign Office, the partners in the EU had jointly submitted 16 concrete proposals against which individuals and organizations sanctions should be imposed in Iran.
There must be consequences for those responsible for the death of Mahsa Amini and the violent repression of the protests.
According to information from
Der Spiegel
, those listed are primarily “representatives of the Iranian apparatus of repression”.
According to the news magazine, political representatives are also among them.
Accordingly, the aim is for the EU foreign ministers to decide on the sanctions at their meeting on October 17th.
The Foreign Office said it was working flat out to implement the proposals.
Protests in Iran: Foreign Minister Baerbock criticizes "the regime's brute force"
Update from October 3, 1:55 p.m
.: Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed her dismay at the violence against protesting students in Tehran.
It was "hard to bear what is happening at Sharif University in Iran," tweeted the Green politician.
"The courage of the Iranians is incredible."
In this context, Baerbock criticized "the brute force of the regime".
This is "an expression of pure fear of the power of education and freedom." It is "difficult to bear that our foreign policy options are limited," Baerbock wrote further with a view to supporting the protest movement.
“But we can amplify their voice, create publicity, accuse and sanction.
And we do," she pointed out.
Khamenei on Iran protests: Are US and Israeli conspiracy
Update October 3, 1:25 p.m
.: Iran's top leader has portrayed the recent unrest in the country as a conspiracy operation by the US, Israel and the "Iranian traitors abroad".
"A young woman died and that was very bitter and regrettable," said Ali Khamenei in his first reaction to the case of the deceased Mahsa Amini and the ongoing protests.
But it is neither normal nor acceptable to burn Korans, mosques, cars and banks for this reason and to tear the veils from the women's heads.
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"These riots are an operation programmed by the United States, the Zionist regime (Israel) and Iranian traitors abroad to torpedo the security of the country," the cleric told state broadcaster IRIB.
The United States and the West are concerned neither with Amini, who died in police custody, nor with the headscarf requirement in Iran.
"Nobody in the US is mourning the dead woman, this is just about the independence of the Islamic Republic and its resistance (against the US)," Khamenei said.
The Americans and Iran's enemies wanted to break this resistance and make the country once again dependent on the West.
According to the constitution, Khamenei has the last word in all strategic matters in Iran.
October 3 handout: Ali Khamenei in Tehran © KHAMENEI.IR /AFP
"Civil war-like" conditions at Iran protests: security forces seal off university
Update from October 3, 12:01 p.m
.: After the violent unrest in Sharif University in Tehran, classes there were stopped until further notice.
According to the news portal
Aftab-News
, it will only take place online from now on.
According to students, this is currently hardly feasible because of the Internet blocks that were imposed in connection with the system-critical protests.
According to local media reports, the night before, security forces had used violence against students.
Police officers and militias cordoned off the campus at night.
There was talk of a police attack and “civil war-like” conditions on social media.
The Iranian media dismissed these reports as exaggerated propaganda.
The demonstrations were triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini a good two weeks ago.
21 September: Street protests in Tehran © AFP
Students protest in Iran: police use tear gas
Update from October 2, 10:45 p.m .:
Videos are circulating on the Internet that are supposed to show how security forces surround an occupied university in Tehran with their vehicles.
Students are apparently demonstrating in the buildings.
They called for help, wrote filmmaker and activist Maziar Bahari in a tweet that was shared hundreds of times.
Law enforcement officials also took action against peaceful demonstrators.
The medium
Iranwire
reported on the use of tear gas and shots with plastic ammunition at protesters.
The CDU politician Johann Wadephul took the report as an opportunity to urge rapid intervention from Berlin.
"Where is the federal government?
Where is Chancellor?
Where is Annalena Baerbock?
These courageous people now need states that will become their advocates,” wrote the member of the Bundestag from Schleswig-Holstein: “Feminist foreign policy must also pass the practical test.”
Baerbock had previously pledged her support to the anti-government demonstrators in Iran.
"We're looking.
We stand by your side, ”said the Green politician on Sunday in Hanover during a campaign appearance before the state elections in Lower Saxony.
Foreign policy options are sometimes limited, she acknowledged.
"But we can look.
We can be the voice of these women.”
Iran crisis: protests have first consequences for regime – rumors about “Supreme Leader”
First report from October 2nd:
Tehran - After the death of the 22-year-old Kurd Mahsa Amini at the hands of the police, the protests in Iran continue.
According to government sources, at least 19 people died and 20 others were seriously injured in violent riots in the south-east of the country on Friday (October 30).
The actual number of dead and injured could be higher, the local news
site Haalvsh
spoke of at least 36 dead and 50 injured.
Meanwhile, rumors have been swirling about Ali Khamenei, Iran's "Supreme Leader."
Is a change of power imminent?
According to the AFP news agency, it was initially not clear whether the clashes in the south-east of the country were related to protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the vice squad.
Because in the Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, there are frequent clashes between security forces and armed groups.
Often these are smugglers, separatist or extremist groups.
Iran News: At least 19 dead in protests - including local intelligence chief
However, reports circulated on social media that the incident was related to the ongoing protests.
The authorities denied this.
Activists claimed security forces fired from a helicopter at a crowd gathered at the Maki Mosque, the
New York Times
reported.
According to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) on Saturday, "terrorist and separatist groups" attacked a police station during Friday prayers in Sahedan.
The IRGC said they arrested several people whom they described as "terrorists".
The local IRGC intelligence chief was apparently among the 19 dead.
According to the human rights organization Iran Human Rights (IHR), at least 83 people had been killed in the protests in Iran before the people in the south-east of the country died.
The Iranian secret service announced on Friday that nine foreign nationals from Germany, Poland, Italy, France, Sweden and the Netherlands were among those arrested so far in the country.
Iran-News: "Supreme Leader" Khamenei possibly ill or unable to work
Iran's head of government, Ebrahim Raisi, caused a scandal shortly after the protests began when he canceled an interview with a US journalist in New York City because she was not wearing a headscarf.
Shortly thereafter, the hardliner agreed to more conciliatory tones.
"I've always said that we should raise our tolerance level for criticism and protests," said Raisi in response to the protests in Iran last Wednesday.
The implementation of the laws can also be reformed and revised, which would even benefit the country, the Iranian President continued.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the de facto ruler in Iran.
The "Supreme Leader" is appointed for life, controls parliament and the media and is considered the political and religious leader and supreme commander of the armed forces.
The 83-year-old is apparently in poor health, according to a report by researchers at the US think tank Institute for the Study of War.
US researchers on protests in Iran: "Currently cannot overthrow the regime"
Khamenei has been unusually absent since the nationwide anti-government protests that began on September 16, ISW experts said.
There are rumors that the state of health of the "Supreme Leader" is said to have deteriorated, but these could not initially be verified.
However, there are indications that Khamenei is ill or unable to work, the ISW report continues.
Accordingly, a successor could be imminent.
"President Ebrahim Raisi - a prominent contender to succeed Khamenei - is positioning himself as the next 'Supreme Leader,' with support from senior officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps," the researchers said.
With regard to the current protests, the ISW experts assume that these would put a strain on the regime's ability to take tough action.
The uprisings are not yet existential.
"The protests [...] currently appear unable to overthrow the regime," the report said.
During the protests, women keep taking off the mandatory headscarves, sometimes even burning the scarves.
To curb the uprisings in the country, Iran restricted internet access.
People all over the world are taking to the streets to show their solidarity.
So also on Saturday in Germany.
(
bme
)
