U.N. Chief Guterres Says He Is ‘Shocked’ (Yes, Shocked) by Violence in Iran
Fifteen days after violence, killings and massacres were first committed against anti-Islamic regime protesters in Iran, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took action. He said on Sunday he was “shocked” by the actions against the freedom fighters and called for calm and restraint.
Guterres, former leader of the Portuguese Socialist Party and prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, “is shocked by reports of violence and excessive use of force by the Iranian authorities against demonstrators,” his spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement, adding a call “to show maximum restraint and to refrain from any unnecessary or disproportionate use of force.”
“All Iranians must be able to express their grievances peacefully and without fear,” Guterres’ spokesperson added in a statement.
“The rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, as enshrined in international law, must be fully respected and protected. »
More than 500 protests have taken place so far in Iran’s 31 provinces, the American news agency Human Rights Activists News Agency reported Monday morning, according to FRANCE24.
The death toll has reached at least 544 deaths, with more than 10,600 arrests.
Warnings are growing that authorities are committing a “massacre” to quell the protests.
The protests, initially sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, have now become a movement against the theocratic system in place in Iran since the 1979 revolution and have already lasted two weeks.
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The mass gatherings pose one of the biggest challenges to the power of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, following Israel’s 12-day, US-backed war against the Islamic republic in June.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, US President Donald Trump continued to openly support Iranian protesters in a series of messages, declaring that the country was “looking towards FREEDOM, perhaps like never before”, and warning the regime that the US was closely monitoring the expansion of protests despite a widespread communications blackout.
As Breitbart News reported, the latest escalation follows remarks Friday by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei predicting that Trump would be “toppled,” even as human rights groups warned of a rising death toll and described a “massacre” unfolding amid mass arrests and lethal force used against protesters — conditions that Trump has repeatedly said would trigger a U.S. response.
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