TEHRAN – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi yesterday accused his US counterpart of “inciting chaos” after President Joe Biden expressed support for protests in the wake of Mahsa Amini’s death in custody.
“The remarks of the American president, who is inciting chaos, terror and the destruction of another country, serve as a reminder of the eternal words of the founder of the Islamic republic, who called America the Great Satan,” Raisi said, referring to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei.
“The enemy’s plot must be countered by effective measures to resolve people’s problems,” Raisi added, according to a presidency statement.
Iran has been rocked by protests since 22-year-old Amini’s death on September 16, three days after she was arrested by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.
The street violence has led to dozens of deaths, mostly among protesters but also among the security forces, and hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested.
Biden had said Friday that “we stand with the citizens, the brave women of Iran”.
“It stunned me what it awakened in Iran. It awakened something that I don’t think will be quieted for a long, long time,” said the US president.
Earlier yesterday, Iran’s foreign affairs spokesman Nasser Kanani had shrugged off Biden’s comments, saying that “Iran is too strong for its will to be swayed by the interference...by a politician tired of years of failure”.
“We will together defend the independence of Iran,” Kanani wrote on Instagram.
On October 6, the US slapped sanctions on seven senior Iranian officials for involvement in the crackdown.
The US Treasury last month also placed sanctions on the morality police. – AFP, October 17, 2022
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