Iran’s Raisi vows ‘no mercy’ for ‘hostile’ protest movement sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death
- President Raisi accused ‘hypocrites, monarchists, all antirevolutionary currents’, saying ‘embrace of nation open to everyone but no mercy to those who are hostile’
- Hundreds of protesters have died since September 16 death in custody of Iranian-Kurdish Amini, 22, after her arrest for alleged breach of strict dress code for women
President Ebrahim Raisi said Tuesday Iran would show “no mercy” towards “hostile” opponents of the Islamic republic, gripped by more than 100 days of protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death.
The “riots”, as Tehran generally refers to them, were triggered by the September 16 death in custody of Iranian-Kurdish Amini, 22, after her arrest for an alleged breach of the strict dress code for women.
Addressing a crowd in Tehran, Raisi accused “hypocrites, monarchists and all antirevolutionary currents”.
“The embrace of the nation is open to all those who were lured,” said the ultraconservative president at a funeral procession for unidentified soldiers who died during war in the 1980s with Iraq, their remains recently recovered from former battlefields.
“The embrace of the nation is open to everyone, but we will show no mercy to those who are hostile,” Raisi said.
Iranian officials say hundreds of people have been killed, including members of the security forces, and thousands have been arrested nationwide.