TEHRAN (dpa-AFX) – In an unusual step, Iran has announced the establishment of a committee of inquiry to clarify the reasons for the protests in the country that have been going on for more than two months. However, neither demonstrators, system critics nor other political parties should take part, Interior Minister Ahmad Wahidi said on Sunday, according to the Ilna news agency.
Just a few hours earlier, Tehran had announced that it had disbanded the vice squad. The protests were triggered by the death of a woman after the moral guards arrested her. Among other things, the demonstrators are demanding a change in the constitution and the lifting of the headscarf requirement.
The protesters had no representatives, “in addition, we were dealing with rioters and troublemakers and not demonstrators,” Wahidi said of the reasons for the exclusion of the protest representatives. According to the minister, the committee of inquiry is about “exploring the roots of the protests and therefore only relevant authorities and independent lawyers will take part in the discussions in the committee,” it said.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has long been planning a forum as a kind of reconciliation gesture to discuss the protests in the country, which have been going on for more than two months, with critics and to resolve differences. However, critics warned that an investigation into the protests without the participation of protest leaders or opposition politicians would not yield constructive results. Some called the proposal “absurd”./vee/DP/he