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Trump rebukes ‘unstable’ Iran over internet shutdown
WASHINGTON, Nov 22, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – President Donald Trump on Thursday
accused Iran of blocking the internet to cover up “death and tragedy” while
the powerful Revolutionary Guards suggested that a wave of street protests is
now over.
Trump’s intervention on Twitter further raised the temperature over the
turmoil in Iran, which is already reeling from US-led economic and diplomatic
pressure.
“Iran has become so unstable that the regime has shut down their entire
Internet System so that the Great Iranian people cannot talk about the
tremendous violence taking place within the country,” Trump tweeted.
“They want ZERO transparency, thinking the world will not find out the
death and tragedy that the Iranian Regime is causing!” he wrote.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meanwhile vowed to “expose and sanction
the abuses” against the protesters, urging Iranians to send “videos, photos
and information documenting the regime’s crackdown” in a post on Twitter.
Demonstrations erupted in sanctions-hit Iran last Friday, hours after the
price of gasoline was raised by as much as 200 percent.
Unrest spread to scores of urban centers, during which police stations were
attacked, petrol pumps torched and shops looted.
A near total internet shutdown has made obtaining information on bloodshed
difficult. Officials have confirmed five deaths, but Amnesty International
has said the real death toll could be well over 100.
The UN’s human rights office has said it was alarmed by reports that live
ammunition had caused a “significant number of deaths.”
Iran’s mission to the UN called the Amnesty toll “speculative” and said
Iran was subject to a “disinformation campaign.”
– ‘Calm’ restored? –
On Thursday, the Revolutionary Guards’ official website praised the armed
forces for taking “timely action” against “rioters” and suggested that calm
had been restored.
While the internet remained mostly blocked for a fifth day, state TV showed
footage of what it said were pro-government rallies to celebrate the defeat
of the “conspiracy.”
Crowds in cities including Qom and Isfahan chanted “death to seditionists,
death to America” and “the blood in our veins is a gift to our leader.”
According to a statement on the Guards’ website, the “incidents were ended
in less than 24 hours and in some cities in 72 hours.”
Protest leaders were arrested in the province of Tehran and Alborz as well
as in the southern city of Shiraz, it added.
The “arrest of the rioters’ leaders has contributed significantly to
calming the situation,” it said.
– ‘People’s vigilance’ –
Top Iranian security official Ali Shamkhani vowed that all those identified
as rioters would be “punished.”
“Enemies wanted to exploit the Iranian nation’s protest regarding
livelihood issues but failed due to the people’s vigilance,” Mehr news agency
quoted him as saying.
State television aired confessions of a woman named Fatemeh Davand who said
she was “one of the leaders of riots” in northwestern Iran and had links to
“anti-revolutionary groups in a neighboring country.”
Iran’s neighbor Iraq has been hit by weeks of its own anti-government
protests, with demonstrators voicing resentment over what they describe as
Tehran’s meddling in their country.
The European Union urged Iran to show “maximum restraint” in handling
protests.
Tehran replied by accusing the EU of interference and asking it “to explain
why it doesn’t keep its promises” to help the Islamic republic bypass US
sanctions that have plunged Iran’s economy into recession.
– Cash handouts –
In an effort to mitigate the higher fuel costs, Iran as of Monday started
paying out cash handouts to 40 million people, with 20 million more set to be
paid on Saturday, local media said.
Monthly handouts — ranging from 550,000 rials ($4.64) for individuals to
slightly more than 2 million rials ($17) for families of five and more — are
to be financed via revenue generated from a reduction in petrol subsidies.
But on Tehran streets, people complained of economic hardship.
“Our income has not increased at all but costs have tripled or quadrupled,”
Ehsan, a lawyer, told AFP. “If it continues as is it will be really hard to
manage livings costs.”
The internet blackout remained largely in effect on Thursday, with Iranians
abroad tweeting hashtags like #Internet4Iran and calling for an end to the
outage.
The national security council made the decision to pull the plug on
internet access, said semi-official news agency ISNA.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0839 hrs