Tougher crackdown
\nIn an unprecedented move, high school students in a dozen cities joined the protests, refusing to attend classes
\nDUBAI
\nIran\u2019s supreme leader on Monday gave his full backing to security forces confronting protests ignited by the death of Mahsa Amini in custody, comments that could herald a harsher crackdown to quell unrest more than two weeks since she died.
\nIn his first remarks addressing the 22-year-old\u2019s death after her arrest by morality police over \u201cinappropriate attire\u201d, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Amini\u2019s death \u201cdeeply broke my heart\u201d and called it a \u201cbitter incident\u201d provoked by Iran\u2019s enemies.
\n\u201cThe duty of our security forces, including police, is to ensure the safety of the Iranian nation … The ones who attack the police are leaving Iranian citizens defenceless against thugs, robbers and extortionists,\u201d Khamenei told a group of armed forces cadets in Tehran.
\nSecurity forces, including police and the volunteer Basij militia, have been leading a crackdown on the protests, with thousands arrested and hundreds injured, according to rights groups, which put the death toll at over 130.
\nIranian authorities have reported many members of the security forces killed during the unrest, which has spiralled into the biggest show of opposition to Iran\u2019s authorities in years, with many calling for the end of more than four decades of Islamic clerical rule.
\nKhamenei said security forces had faced \u201cinjustice\u201d during the protests.
\n\u201cSome people have caused insecurity in the streets,\u201d Khamenei said, sharply condemning what he described as planned \u201criots\u201d, and accusing the United States and Israel – the Islamic Republic\u2019s arch-adversaries – of orchestrating the disturbances.
\nThe harsh crackdown against the protests has drawn widespread international condemnation. The White House denounced the crackdown and Britain summoned the Iranian charge d\u2019affaires, condemning the crackdown as \u201ctruly shocking\u201d.
\n\u2018Harsh punishment\u2019
\nWithin hours after Amini\u2019s funeral in the Kurdish town of Saqez on Sept. 17, thousands of Iranians poured into the streets across the country, with people burning pictures of Khamenei and chanting \u201cDeath to the dictator\u201d, according to videos on social media.
\nStill, there is little chance of a collapse of the Islamic Republic in the near term, since its leaders are determined not to show the kind of weakness they believe sealed the fate of the U.S.-backed Shah in 1979, officials and analysts told Reuters.
\nHowever, the unrest calls into the question the priority that has defined Khamenei\u2019s rule – the survival at any cost of the four-decade-old Islamic Republic and its religious elite.
\n\u201cThose who ignited unrest to sabotage the Islamic Republic deserve harsh prosecution and punishment,\u201d said Khamenei.
\nThe protests have not abated despite a growing death toll and an increasingly violent crackdown by security forces using tear gas, clubs and – in some cases, according to videos on social media and rights groups – live ammunition.
\nIn defiance of Khamenei\u2019s warning, Iranians in several cities chanted \u201cWe want regime change\u201d and \u201cdeath to Khamenei\u201d from rooftops at night – a form of protest used in the 1979 revolution that turned Iran into an Islamic Republic.
\nIn an unprecedented move, high school students in a dozen cities joined the protests, refusing to attend classes and walking in the streets without compulsory headscarf. Videos on social media showed young girls chanting \u201cFreedom, Freedom\u201d in the city of Karaj.
\nDemonstrations also spread to dozens of universities, with university students staging strikes to protest a late Sunday attack by security forces at Tehran\u2019s prominent Sharif University. Dozens of students were arrested and many have been injured according to social media posts and videos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tougher crackdown In an unprecedented move, high school students in a dozen cities joined the protests, refusing to attend classes DUBAI Iran\u2019s supreme leader on Monday gave his full backing to security forces confronting protests ignited by the death of Mahsa Amini in custody, comments that could herald a harsher crackdown to quell unrest more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287448,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-287434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n