Iranian Revolutionary Guard chief warns protesters: “This is the last day of the riots” | Iran

Violent protests have been taking place in Iran for a month and a half. The demonstrations prompted the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Mahsa Amini on September 16, after she was arrested by the Iranian vice squad for allegedly not wearing her headscarf correctly. The recent protests represent one of the biggest challenges to the country’s religious governance since the 1979 revolution. Iranian leaders point to Israel and the United States as instigators of the protests.

“Don’t come out on the street! Today is the last day of the riots,” Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami warned. “This dubious plan is one that was hatched in the White House and the Zionist regime,” Salami said. “Don’t sell your honor to America and don’t slap the security forces that defend you.”

During the popular uprising in recent weeks, in which women play a prominent role, Iranians ignored such warnings.

On Saturday, there were further reports of bloodshed and new protests. Human rights group Hengaw reports that security forces fired on students at a girls’ school in the city of Saqez. Hengaw also says that the security services also shot at students of a medical university in Sanandaj, the capital of the Kurdistan province. Several students were injured. One of them was shot in the head, the organization claims. Violent protests also broke out in other places in Iran.

The much-feared Revolutionary Guards, an elite corps that has brutally attacked dissidents in the past and reports directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has not been deployed since the demonstrations began. However, Salami’s warning suggests that Khamenei may now want to use the paramilitary organization to quell the ongoing protests now aimed at the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.