The Revolutionary Guards praised the "quick" action of the armed forces against the "rioters" in Iran, where the Internet remained largely inaccessible Thursday, November 21-November despite a return to calm apparent after violence having affected a hundreds of cities.
The troubles started after the announcement Friday of a reform of the subsidy mode of gasoline, supposed to benefit the less favored households but accompanied by a very sharp rise in the price at the pump.
The "main leaders" arrested
So far, the authorities have confirmed the death of five people, but the UN has said it is feared that "dozens" of people were killed in the clashes. "Every rioter, wherever he is in Iran, will be identified and punished," Rear Admiral Ali Chamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, was quoted by the Mehr news agency as saying.
According to the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, "incidents, large and small [...] took place in [a little] less than one hundred cities" to which it was put to an end "in less than 24-hours, and in some cities in 72-hours." It is the "result of the perspicacity and the rapid action of the armed forces and the police forces", judge the Guardians, adding that the "main leaders" were arrested in the provinces of Teheran and Alborz (bordering the capital), as well as Shiraz (south-central).
Since Wednesday, state television has not released any new image involving the violence of the protesters, showing rather "spontaneous" demonstrations of support for the authorities. According to these images, such gatherings took place in Qom, Isfahan, Shiraz and Kerman (center), as well as in Bandar Abbas (south). The semi-official Isna agency reported another in Karaj, near Tehran.
These protests took place as Iraq, neighboring Iran, is hit by a wave of popular protest on an unprecedented scale denouncing the inaction of the authorities to solve their problems and the interference of Tehran in Iraqi affairs. .
For Tehran, the protest in Iraq, like that of the last days in Iran is controlled by foreign powers hostile to the Islamic Republic: the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia, Iran's great regional rival.
Access to the global Internet remained largely cut Thursday while on Twitter flourish hashtags like # Internet4Iran ("Internet for Iran") calling for the end of this digital curfew. Quoted by Isna, the reformist MP Ali Motahari said that the cut of the Internet was "no longer necessary given the return to calm in the country" and called on the authorities to lift the measure in force for more than four days .
With AFP