Iran issues warning to Biden
The US will fail in its attempts to incite unrest and meddle in Iran’s domestic affairs, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani has said. His statement comes after US President Joe Biden backed the anti-government protests across the Islamic Republic.
Protests and clashes with police erupted last month after a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, died in custody after being detained by Iran’s morality police in Tehran for wearing an “inappropriate” headscarf. Her family claimed that she had been tortured.
Kanaani accused Biden on Saturday of “supporting the riots.”
“Given the fact he neither enjoys trusted advisers nor a good memory, I remind him that Iran is so strong and steadfast that it would not give in to his cruel sanctions and idle threats,” Kanaani said, as quoted by Press TV.
The diplomat stated that the Islamic republic “will be unfazed by the interventions and [statements] of a politician tired of the futile campaign against Iran.”
“We will together defend the independence of Iran,” he added.
On Friday, speaking to reporters in Portland, Oregon, Biden called the Iranian government “oppressive” and said he was surprised by “the courage of people and women taking the street.”
“I mean, it’s really been amazing,” Biden said.
The US has already imposed two rounds of sanctions against the Iranian morality police and several officials, including two government ministers, over what it called “violent suppression of peaceful protest.”
At least 240 people have been killed during the protests across Iran, according to the news agency HRANA, which reports on human rights issues.
On Saturday, a fire broke out inside the Evin Prison in Tehran amid the unrest, killing four inmates, authorities said, blaming “clashes” between inmates for the incident.
The official coroner’s report released last week, meanwhile, said that Amini had fallen into a coma and died from underlying conditions and not from physical violence. An inquiry by Iran’s parliament came to the same conclusion on Sunday. The report also stated that the ambulance could not get to Amini fast enough because of the crowd in front of the morality police’s office.
