The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Husein Salami, has warned demonstrators that «the protests will end today,» in a message to participants in the marches that have been sweeping the country for 40 days in protest of the death in custody of young Mahsa Amini following her arrest for improperly wearing the veil.
«The protesters must not test the patience of the system,» the general warned Saturday before addressing the country’s youth directly: «The protests end today. Don’t go out on the streets anymore.»
Salami addressed supporters of the authorities during the funeral for the victims of Wednesday’s attack on the Shiraz mosque, an attack blamed on Islamic State but which the authorities blame on the culmination of days of rioting fueled by the country’s enemy powers.
Salami insisted, as Iranian intelligence agencies did on Friday night, that the unrest since mid-September is mainly the result of a conspiracy by the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
«Do not sell your homeland and honor to America, do not slap the faces of the warriors who have used their chests to protect you, take off the disguise of American soldiers, do not become pawns of the enemies of the homeland,» he said in statements carried by the official Iranian news agency IRNA.
According to Iranian NGOs, mainly linked to the opposition, at least 253 demonstrators have died in Iran since the beginning of the demonstrations following the death in custody of Amini on September 16, among them 34 children, according to the balance sheet collected by the Kurdish news agency Rudaw.
