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Iran deploys Revolutionary Guards to quell sedition in protest hotbeds
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Thousands join pro-govt rallies in several cities in a state-sponsored show of force
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the United States would throw its support behind those protesting in Iran at an appropriate time, his latest in a string of tweets since anti-government protests erupted last week against Tehran.
“Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!” Trump wrote in a post on Twitter. On Wednesday, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have deployed forces to three provinces to put down an eruption of anti-government unrest, their commander said, after six days of protests that have left 21 people dead.
Thousands of Iranians took part in pro-government rallies in several cities in a state-sponsored show of force aimed at countering unrest posing the most sustained challenge to the clerical elite in almost a decade. State television broadcast live pictures of rallies in the southwestern cities of Kermanshah and Ilam and in the northern city of Gorgan, where marchers waved Iranian flags and pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
But, in a sign of official concern about the resilience of the protests, Revolutionary Guards commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said that he had dispatched forces to Isfahan, Lorestan and Hamadan provinces to tackle the new sedition. Most of the casualties among protesters have occurred in those regions. The Revolutionary Guards were instrumental in suppressing the 2009 uprising, killing dozens of protesters then.
In Qom city, pro-government demonstrators chanted “death to American mercenaries”. There were similar rallies in Isfahan, Iran’s third largest city, and Abadan and Khorramshahr in the oil-rich southwest, state TV footage showed. Marchers chanted, “The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader (Khamenei),” and, “We will not leave our leader alone.” They accused the US, Israel and Britain of inciting protests, shouting “the seditionist rioters should be executed!”
The protests began last week out of frustration over economic hardship among the youth and working class but have evolved into broader unrest against the hardline clerical establishment dominating since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Political rallies held in defiance of the pervasive security services have called for the overthrow of all Iranian leaders.
In Geneva, the UN human rights chief urged Iran to rein in security forces to avoid further violence and respect the right of protesters to freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein said that more than 20 had been killed and hundreds arrested across Iran in the past week. He called for thorough, independent and impartial investigations of all acts of violence.
