Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says no one should dare think they can uproot the Islamic Republic, in his toughest warning to protesters since Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody ignited unrest now in its fourth week.
Demonstrations by people from all walks of life, after the Iranian Kurdish woman’s death following her arrest for “inappropriate attire,” have evolved into widespread calls for the downfall of Khamenei and “Death to the Islamic Republic”.
The protests mark one of the boldest challenges to clerical rule since the 1979 revolution even if the unrest does not seem close to toppling the system.
Khamenei compared the Islamic Republic to an unshakeable tree.
“That seedling is a mighty tree now and no one should dare think they can uproot it,” he said in remarks shown on state TV.
Some of the deadliest unrest has been in areas home to ethnic minorities with long-standing grievances against the state, including Kurds in the northwest and Baluchis in the southeast.
Rights groups say more than 200 people have been killed in the crackdown, including teenage girls.
Amnesty International said at least 23 children have died.
Police deployed heavily on Friday in the city of Dezful, a witness said, after activists called for protests in the predominantly ethnic Arab, oil-rich province of Khuzestan at the Iraqi border.
Read the article in the Mandurah Mail (AAP).