Iran's Raisi Condemns Chaos Of Protests After Mahsa Amini's Death

Paris, Sept 28 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Sep, 2022 ) :Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi condemned Wednesday the "chaos" sparked by a wave of women-led protests over the death of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the Islamic republic's morality police.

"Those who took part in the riots must be dealt with decisively, this is the demand of the people," said Raisi in a televised interview.

"People's safety is the red line of the Islamic republic of Iran and no one is allowed to break the law and cause chaos," he said.

"The enemy has targeted national unity and wants to pit people against each other," added the ultraconservative president, accusing Iran's archfoe the United States of stoking the unrest.

Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died on September 16, three days after she had been arrested for allegedly breaching Iran's strict rules for women on wearing hijab headscarves and modest clothing.

Raisi said the nation had felt "grief and sorrow" over her death, and that forensics and judiciary experts would soon present a final report, but also warned that "protests are different to riots".

As the Iranian protests have flared for 12 nights in a row, Iran's police command vowed its forces would confront them "with all their might", in a crackdown that one rights group says has already killed at least 76 people.

Iran has blamed outside forces for the unrest, including "counter-revolutionary" Kurdish groups based in northern Iraq -- across from Iran's Kurdistan province Amini hailed from, and where the protests first flared.

In a major escalation, Iran on Wednesday launched cross-border missile and drone strikes that killed 13 people in Iraq's Kurdistan region, after accusing Kurdish armed groups based there of fuelling the unrest.