TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the country’s military, warned on Friday that any new protests against the authorities would be met with a stronger response than in January, when several thousand people were killed.
“The evil enemy, failing to achieve its field battle goals, is once again pursuing the instillation of fear and street riots,” the Guards said in a statement broadcast on TV, promising “a stronger blow than on January 8” in the event of new unrest.
The warning comes two weeks into Iran’s war with the United States and Israel in which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says one of the aims is to “create, for the Iranian people, the conditions to bring down” the Iranian government.
US President Donald Trump has also called for Iranians to rise up and overthrow their government.
In December, protests against the high cost of living in Iran turned into a broad protest movement against the authorities.
It reached its peak on January 8 with what Iranian authorities called “riots” blamed on “terrorists” working on behalf of Israel and the United States.
The official death toll from Iranian authorities stands at more than 3,000, with the government saying the vast majority were members of security forces or passers-by.
NGOs based abroad have accused the security forces of deliberately firing on demonstrators.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency, based in the United States, says more than 7,000 people were killed.
Iran became an Islamic republic in 1979.