US asks Iran to release anti-government protesters unconditionally

WASHINGTON, December 26 – RIA Novosti. US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US has requested the Iranian authorities to unconditionally release all prisoners who participated in the anti-government protests in the country.

According to Price, the international community continues to support “brave Iranian women”, including the removal of Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

On December 14, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) voted in favor of a US resolution that excluded Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women for violating women’s rights. 28 countries voted “in favor” for the resolution. There were 8 states, including Russia, against him. The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically condemned the decision, emphasizing that it has no legal validity and is contrary to the UN Charter.

Mass riots have been taking place in Iran since mid-September as a young girl named Mahsa Amini died after being detained by police aide. People living in the country blamed law enforcement for Mahsa’s death. Iranian women started posting videos of them cutting their hair and burning headscarves en masse on social networks.

For two and a half months the protests took on a radical extremist character. The rebels began to attack almost daily the clergy, the high priests of Iranian mosques, members of the security forces – the police, the Revolutionary Guards, as well as one of the major military structures – the Basij. In late October and early November, there were also two terrorist attacks in Iran: the first in the city of Shiraz, and the second in a small city in the south of the country in the province of Khuzestan. Terrorists opened fire on civilians and police officers with semi-automatic weapons.

Iranian officials accuse Western countries of supporting protesters who spread destructive, anti-Iranian messages in their media, and also urge the Iranian people to take revolutionary measures and overthrow the government in the country. Law enforcement carries out mass arrests of individuals recruited by the intelligence services of Western countries, Israel and Saudi Arabia.