Interior minister says rioters, not gov’t silencing people’s voices
Streets become ‘significantly calmer’: Police chief
Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni on Sunday blamed the rioters for blocking people’s voices from being heard in the wake of protests over economic hardship.
“It’s not the government or the Islamic Establishment that does not allow people’s voices to be heard, but rather, it’s the rioters,” Momeni told national TV.
He said a small minority that quickly turns protests into destruction, vandalism, and terrorist acts had prevented the people of Iran to protest.
“In previous years, when people had demands, they expressed them calmly,” the minister said, noting that, unfortunately, even back then, a few individuals, armed with cold weapons or firearms, diverted these demands at the end.
Momeni pointed out that the right to protest was recognized in Iran’s constitution, and the government had repeatedly stated that it respected and safeguarded that right.
“In recent protests, we saw a few opportunists turning peaceful protests voicing people’s legitimate demands into utter destruction, burning buildings and private and public vehicles, even emergency vehicles.”
He noted that some of these individuals had been trained to steer protests toward violence.
The minister, emphasizing that people were stunned by the scale of destruction in recent days, said: “Even law enforcement centers were attacked, and several of our security forces were killed.”
Ahmad Reza Radan, the chief of Iran’s Police Force, said a significant portion of the victims of the recent riots had been killed by cold weapons and knife strikes.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Radan said in cases where bullet firing was involved, the shooting took place at a very close range, indicating that these actions were not carried out by security forces but by trained and directed elements.
“Our fellow Iranians need to know that anyone who stands beside these rioters is potentially the victims of their violent acts,” Radan said, warning that they were “sacrificing” the youths of the country to generate more fatalities.
The chief warned that from this point forward, “rioting” would be completely separated from “protesting”, and rioters would be dealt with “decisively, quickly, and without compromise.”
However, Radan maintained that through the synergy and proper coordination between security and police forces, the level of dealing with rioters was improved.
“Two significant events occurred in recent days that contributed to the significant calm in the country last night compared to previous nights: one was the condemnation of rioters by people in various provinces, and the other was the separation of protesters from rioters. This allowed security forces to quickly reach the main centers of riots.”
The interior minister also echoed Radan’s statement and said that the trend of riots and destruction is on the decline overall, denying the claims that a city was seized ever at all.