At least three people have been killed during violent protests over water shortages in Iran, according to state media. The protests started in southwest Khuzestan province and spread to the nearby city of Aligoodarz in western Lorestan province. Authorities are blaming the deaths in Aligoordarz on “suspicious bullets shot by some unknown people who penetrated among peaceful protesters,” state media said. People have been demonstrating for more than a week over water shortages during Iran’s worst drought in over half a century that has affected households, agriculture, livestock farming, and led to power blackouts.
Protests are continuing in southwestern Iran amid the country’s worst drought in 50 years, with security forces deployed in cities across the Khuzestan province and beyond. At least three people are believed to have been shot dead since the protests erupted a week ago, with at least one police officer reportedly among them. Officials have blamed criminals for the deaths, while opposition activists and human rights groups have blamed security forces. The drought has left homes and businesses without reliable access to water.
Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, whose health has “seriously deteriorated” since her arrest three years ago, has been granted a five-day treatment leave from prison. Sotoudeh will undergo various medical examinations, according to a post her husband, Reza Khandan, wrote on his Facebook page, “Nasrin has come home on treatment leave for five days,” he wrote in the post, which also showed a picture of Sotoudeh and her two children after her temporary release from the Gharchak women’s prison in Tehran.
Four Iranian Bahais were sentenced to a total of 13 years of prison yesterday in Yazd, central Iran. According to the Human Rights News Agency, the four Bahais were identified as Amin Zolfaghari, Mahboubeh Misaghian, Mitra Bandi Amirabadi, and Hiva Yazdan Mehdi Abadi. The Branch 2 Revolutionary Court of Yazd sentenced each to 3 years and four months of prison. They were charged with “membership in opposition groups” and “spreading propaganda against the state”. The sentence has not been confirmed by the Appeals court yet.
Iran’s IRGC and security forces have rounded up and detained scores of locals amid the ongoing protests over water shortage in Kuzestan Province. According to activists and local reports, the state security forces arrested several injured protesters from hospitals. A number of activists who had been previously arrested during the widespread protests in November 2019, are among those arrested. Many injured protesters are not seeking hospital treatment due to fear of arrests.
Fourteen organizations based in Europe and the United States have called on the European Union, European states and the US to “act immediately to secure the release” of Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian disaster-medicine specialist who was sentenced to death in Iran in 2017 by a revolutionary court for ‘corruption on earth’ after charges he had supplied intelligence to Israel.
Iran’s Supreme Leader leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday said he understands protesters’ anger over a drought in the country’s southwest, as a fourth death related to ongoing demonstrations there was reported. The remark, reported by state television, was the first direct comment on the protests by Khamenei since the demonstrations began in the Khuzestan region a week ago. The semiofficial news agency Fars reported that a man was killed by shotgun fire in street violence in the nearby city of Aligoudarz; police blamed the slaying on “counterrevolutionary elements.”
Iran on Saturday dismissed as meddling in its internal affairs criticism by the United Nations’ human rights boss of the shooting deaths of protesters during demonstrations over water shortages. Meanwhile, rallies in support of the protests in the southwestern province of Khuzestan spread to the northwest of the country on Saturday, according to videos posted on social media. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Friday expressed concern about deaths and injuries and widespread detentions over the past week in oil-rich Khuzestan.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Friday warned residents of the drought-hit southwest not to give ammunition to the “enemy” after days of protests that have seen at least four killed. Khuzestan, Iran’s main oil-producing region and the wealthiest of the country’s 31 provinces, has been gripped by drought since March, with protests erupting in several towns and cities since July 15. Khamenei acknowledged the seriousness of the water problem and said residents of Khuzestan were not to blame for expressing their discontent, but he urged them to be cautious.
Iranian journalists in the UK say they are worried about their safety after the attempted kidnapping of an Iranian reporter in the US, where she has citizenship. The US Justice Department last week announced it had indicted four Iranian citizens connected to the Islamic Republic’s intelligence apparatus who are accused of planning to kidnap an opposition journalist in New York. Masih Alinejad, a staunch opponent of Tehran, was confirmed as the would-be victim by Reuters.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met Friday with Iranian-American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad, who was the target of an Iranian kidnapping plot this year uncovered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This was Alinejad’s second meeting with a top Biden Administration official after she spoke with Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week, following the indictment of four Iranian intelligence agents in absentia for their role in the kidnapping plot. The National Security Advisor first expressed concern for Alinejad’s brother and colleagues detained in Iran. “He affirmed the U.S. Government’s strong continued support for Ms. Alinejad’s work to advance universal human rights, particularly her tireless efforts on behalf of women, the Iranian people, and all those unjustly detained by the Iranian government,” a White House Statement said.
…The Iranian leaders are facing significant pressure domestically. The protests demonstrate that the regime is weakening drastically at home, even as external pressure is being reduced. Every day, the domestic situation resembles revolutionary circumstances, the ruling theocracy becomes more isolated, and organized democratic oppositional groups gain ground. All the ingredients are there to support democratic change in Iran. Let us begin with the situation inside the country. To date, the coronavirus disease has taken the lives of at least 300,000 people, according to independent tallies.
Amid the escalating protests over water shortages in Iran’s oil-producing Khuzestan province, government officials in Tehran are unable to fall back on the old excuse that nobody could have seen the crisis coming. They themselves did. In 2015, Isa Kalantari, a former Iranian agriculture minister, warned that water scarcity would force 50 million Iranians — 60% of the population — to leave the country. He complained that officials in Tehran had for too long ignored the problem, adding: “And now that they understand it, it’s a little late.”
چندین شهر ایران برای هشتمین شب پیاپی صحنه اعتراضات ضدحکومتی بودند و دامن اعتراضات و همبستگی با معترضان در خوزستان به الیگودرز لرستان و شاهینشهر اصفهان کشیده شده است. سازمان عفو بینالملل میگوید ماموران به تیراندازی با فشنگ جنگی و تفنگ ساچمهای متوسل شده و تاکنون دستکم هشت نفر در خوزستان کشته شدهاند. صدا و سیمای ایران کشته شدن یک جوان ۲۰ ساله و زخمی شدن دو نوجوان ۱۶ ساله را در شب گذشته در الیگودرز تایید کرده، اما گفته تیراندازی از سوی افراد “مشکوک” و “ناشناس” بوده است. مقامهای ایرانی نیز میگویند یک مامور پلیس در ماهشهر کشته شده است.
با ادامه اعتراضهای مردمی به بیآبی در ایران برای هشتمین شب پیاپی، کمیسر عالی حقوق بشر سازمان ملل متحد از مسئولان جمهوری اسلامی ایران خواست به جای استفاده از قوه قهریه و بازداشتهای گسترده برای سرکوب اعتراضها، به منظور رسیدگی به مسئله كمبود مزمن آب در استان خوزستان «اقدام فوری» انجام دهند. میشل باشله روز جمعه با انتشار بیانیهای گفت: «تاثیر بحران ویرانگر آب بر زندگی، بهداشت و رفاه مردم خوزستان باید در مرکز توجه حکومت قرار بگیرد، نه اعتراضهای مردمی که به واسطه سالها سهلانگاری مستاصل شدهاند.» وی افزود: «من از کشته و زخمی شدن افراد که در هفته گذشته اتفاق افتاده و همچنین دستگیریها و بازداشتهای گسترده، بیاندازه نگرانم