Iran’s Raisi accuses US of destabilisation plots

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has accused the United States of plots to repeat the 2011 Arab uprisings in the Islamic Republic.

“The Americans and other enemies sought to destabilize Iran by implementing the same plans as in Libya and Syria, but they failed,” Raisi was quoted by Iranian news agencies as telling a group of students on Friday.

A popular uprising in Libya led to a NATO intervention in 2011 and the overthrow and killing of the country’s leader Muammar Gaddafi by rebel fighters.

In Syria, mass demonstrations against Iran’s ally President Bashar al-Assad were confronted with force and the country spiraled into a conflict that continues 11 years on.

By contrast, Iranian cities were now “safe and sound”, Raisi said, promising retribution for the unrest the country had seen.

As Iranian authorities marked the anniversary this week of the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by radical students, President Joe Biden backed the protesters, saying:

“We’re gonna free Iran. They’re gonna free themselves pretty soon.”

Students and women have led many of the current protests, with women throwing off and burning veils in defiance of the strict dress codes and students chanting down officials on university campuses, according to unverified video footage.

Also Read: Mahsa Amini: Iran’s President warns protesters

Iran’s clerical leadership has struggled to suppress demonstrations that erupted in September after the death of young Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini who had been detained by morality police for flouting strict laws on women’s dress.

Hundreds of people, mostly protesters, have been killed according to activists in one of the most serious waves of unrest to sweep the country since the 1979 Islamic Revolution which overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah.

The activist HRANA news agency said 314 protesters had been killed in the unrest as of Friday, including 47 minors. Some 38 members of the security forces had also been killed.

At least 14,170 people have been arrested, including 392 students, in protests in 136 cities and towns, and 134 universities, it said.

Zainab Sa’id