UN calls for Iran protest deaths to be 'transparently' investigated

Bangla Press Desk: The UN's human rights chief on Friday called for all protest deaths in Iran to be "independently and transparently" probed, while also expressing concern at the internet being cut in the country.

Volker Turk, in a statement, said he was "deeply disturbed by reports of violence" in the nationwide protests, saying: "Those responsible for any violations must be held to account in line with international norms and standards."

Iran's foreign minister accused the United States and Israel on Friday of fuelling the growing protest in the country, while dismissing the possibility of direct foreign military intervention after US warnings over crackdowns on demonstrators.

"This is what the Americans and Israelis have stated, that they are directly intervening in the protests in Iran," said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during a visit to Lebanon.

"They are trying to transform the peaceful protests into divisive and violent ones," he said, adding that "regarding the possibility of seeing military intervention against Iran, we believe there is a low possibility of this because their previous attempts were total failures".

On Friday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei struck a defiant tone in his first comments on the protests that have been escalating since 3 January, calling the demonstrators "vandals" and "saboteurs", in a speech broadcast on state TV.

Khamenei said US President Donald Trump's hands "are stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians", in apparent reference to Israel's June war against the Islamic republic which the US supported and joined with strikes of its own.

He predicted the "arrogant" US leader would be "overthrown" like the imperial dynasty that ruled Iran up to the 1979 revolution.

"Last night in Tehran, a bunch of vandals came and destroyed a building that belongs to them to please the US president," he said in an address to supporters, as men and women in the audience chanted the mantra of "death to America".

"Everyone knows the Islamic republic came to power with the blood of hundreds of thousands of honourable people, it will not back down in the face of saboteurs."

Trump said late Thursday that "enthusiasm to overturn that regime is incredible" and warned that if the Iranian authorities responded by killing protesters, "we're going to hit them very hard. We're ready to do it."

In the Fox News interview, Trump went as far as to suggest 86-year-old Khamenei may be looking to leave Iran.

"He's looking to go someplace," he said.

BP/SP