Rouhani calls for the release of "innocent" protesters

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday called for the release of "innocent and unarmed" demonstrators detained during protests over rising gasoline prices and renewed his willingness to talk to Washington if sanctions were lifted.

The unrest, which began on November 15 after the government suddenly raised fuel prices by up to 300 percent, spread to more than a hundred cities and towns, and took a political dimension with youth and working-class demonstrators demanding the resignation of the ruling religious elite.

"Religious and Islamic clemency should be shown," Rowhani said in a televised address. "Those innocent people who protested against the rise in gasoline prices and were not armed should be released."

Lift sanctions
Tehran has not released an official toll, but Amnesty International said on Monday it had documented the deaths of at least 208 protesters.

A lawmaker said last week that authorities had arrested about 7,000 protesters, and the judiciary had rejected the estimates.

In a parallel context, Iran has confirmed that it is still ready to negotiate with the United States within a multilateral framework, if Washington lifted the sanctions re-imposed on Tehran after its unilateral withdrawal from the international agreement on Iran's nuclear program.

"If they are ready to lift the sanctions, we are ready to talk and negotiate even at the level of leaders of the six countries," the Iranian president said, referring to the countries that signed the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran (China, the United States, France, Britain, Russia and Germany).