Iranian protests condemning the shooting down of the Ukrainian plane .. American support for the demonstrators and the arrest of a prominent dissident

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said his country stands with the Iranian demonstrators in their call for freedom and justice, and he stressed that they should not be harmed. This comes as a comment on the continuous protests in the capital Tehran and other cities against the background of the accident of the downing of the Ukrainian plane, while the Iranian authorities arrested Hussein Karroubi, son of reformist opponent Mahdi Karoubi, who has been under house arrest since 2011 because of his support for the demonstrations in the country.

Pompeo said in a speech at Stanford University in California, that the Iranians took to the streets in huge numbers despite the dangers, as they burned posters and paintings bearing the image of the late commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Qassem Soleimani, describing him as a murderer.

The US Secretary of State accused Iran on Monday that it would do "everything in its power" to end the demonstrations taking place in the country protesting the shooting down of the Ukrainian plane by the Iranian forces, through the Basij forces and the "Iranian thugs", and renewed his warnings to Tehran of launching more crackdowns against the demonstrators.

Pompeo also indicated that the US administration launched a campaign against Iran based on diplomatic isolation, economic pressure, and military deterrence.

For his part, Trump published a tweet on Monday saying, "The wonderful Iranian demonstrators refused to walk on our great American flag, or at least denigrate it." "He was put on the street to be trampled on, but they avoided him. Big progress!"

For his part, US Republican Senator Mitt Romney published a tweet in which he said that the United States stands with the Iranians who are demonstrating for freedom. He did not exclude the American politician from trying to call them "Ayatollahs tyranny" to crush the opposition.

In the context, the spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said Monday that the accusations regarding the use of violence against protesters to shoot down a civilian plane in Iran are worrying and should be fully investigated. "We are clearly and closely following the demonstrations taking place these days in Iran and the Secretary-General is reminded of the right to freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly of people," Stefan Dujarric told reporters.

Opposition arrest
Meanwhile, the semi-official Fars News Agency said that Iranian security forces have arrested Hussein Karoubi at his home in support of the demonstrations that have been going on in the country for three days, and added that Hussein Karroubi is a member of the Central Council of the opposition National Trust Party, which was previously headed by his father.

Hussein Karoubi's arrest came two days after his father, who has been under house arrest since 2011, called on Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to step down because of his handling of a Ukrainian plane crash.

Besides Karoubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnouri, are subject to house arrest. The Iranian reformist movement considers that the three people have been held in their homes since 2011 without being brought to trial, in violation of the country's laws.

President Hassan Rouhani had previously promised during his campaign to raise house arrest for the three people during his first term in 2013.

Meanwhile, student protests continued at Sharif Technological University in the Iranian capital, Tehran, in conjunction with demonstrations in other regions. The participants raised slogans condemning the policy of the government, and the officials' decision not to announce the reason for the shooting down of the Ukrainian plane. It is reported that sixteen of the plane's victims were graduates of Sharif University.

Crowds of protesters flocked to Azadi Square and the main streets leading to it in the center of the capital, while chanting slogans against the security forces and the Revolutionary Guards. Meanwhile, riot police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.

Protesters in several other cities - including Amal, Mashhad, Yazd, Shiraz, Isfahan, Tabriz, Arak, Yazd, Ahvaz, Qazvin, Kermanshah and Sanandaj - raised slogans denouncing the government's policies and its handling of the Ukrainian plane accident.

The demonstrations saw the tearing of pictures of the former commander of the Iranian Quds Force Qassem Soleimani, who was killed a few days ago by an American raid in Iraq.

The demonstrators blocked roads in the capital, Tehran, by burning waste containers, chanting "Death to the dictator" and "Death to Khamenei" (Supreme Leader of the Republic).

Video clips posted on Twitter showed dozens of protesters in front of a university in Tehran chanting "They lie and say that our enemy is America ... our enemy here." Videos also showed dozens of demonstrators gathered in other cities.

Activists published on the media late on Sunday evening, videos they said were shooting in the vicinity of protests in Iran, in addition to pictures of the injured carried by demonstrators.

Other leaflets showed police in riot gear beating protesters with sticks on the street, while people nearby shouted, "Don't beat them."

Official denial
In contrast, the Tehran police chief denied reports that Iranian security forces had opened fire on demonstrators during protests in the Iranian capital yesterday night.

And Saturday, the Iranian Staff announced - in a statement - that its air defense system shot down the Ukrainian passenger plane following a human error the moment it passed over a sensitive military area. Tehran initially denied the plane was hit by a missile, and said it had convincing evidence in this regard.

On January 8, a Ukrainian Boeing 737 passenger plane crashed, killing 176 people: 82 Iranians, 57 Canadians, 11 Ukraine, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans and three Britons.

In the wake of the authorities' handling of the case, a pause in honor of the victims organized by Tehran University students turned into a protest demonstration on Saturday evening that was dispersed by the police.

The new wave of anger increases the challenges facing the authorities who launched a violent campaign last November to quell the protests, and the authorities are making great efforts to prevent the collapse of the economy, which is subject to severe US sanctions.