LONDON: Reports from Iran suggest authorities are set to clamp down on the city of Zahedan, the site of assaults on protesters in 2022 that left multiple people dead or injured.
Sixty-six people are known to have died after security forces opened fire on demonstrators on Sept. 30, a day subsequently known as “Bloody Friday,” at a march to protest the death earlier that month of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the country’s morality police for not wearing her hijab correctly.
A number of people told the Guardian that at least 15 checkpoints had been established across Zahedan, the capital of the southeastern Sunni-majority Sistan-Baluchistan province, and that multiple arrests had taken place.
One man named Mohammad told the paper: “All entrances and exits to and from the city have been blocked and they’ve set up checkpoints. We have no idea how many were detained (or) where they were taken.”
Farzin Kadkhodaei, a human rights activist from Baluchistan, said that police had started filming protesters in order to identify and arrest them later. “People are being abducted from homes, parks and, from Jan. 1, they’ve started making mass arrests. We don’t even know if they’re alive or dead.”
Kadkhodaei said that at least 114 people had been detained so far, at least one had been brutally tortured, and that families were forced to visit courts on the off chance of seeing their arrested relatives.
“The release of minors who have been arrested depends entirely on the mood of the guards that day,” he said. “They released a few teenagers and the rest are still in prison.”
One detainee, 18-year-old Shoaib Mirbaluchzehi-Regi, has reportedly been denied legal help and tortured into confessing to membership of an armed group. He now faces the death penalty, activists told the Guardian.
Sistan-Baluchistan has taken the brunt of much of the Iranian regime’s response to the protests.
One demonstrator, identified only as Sara, told the Guardian: “Security forces have been attacking the Baloch areas for about two weeks. At least 15 checkpoints have been set up in and around our city this week. They will try to threaten us and we are not going to be afraid.
“This government has discriminated against the Balochis, Kurds, Sunnis, Baha’is and other national minorities since the beginning (of the Islamic Republic). But these discriminations are more painful in (Sistan-)Baluchistan. Because they are both Baloch and Sunni, and Baluchistan is the poorest region of Iran.”
Skylar Thompson, head of advocacy at Human Rights Activists in Iran, said facts on the ground about the situation in Zahedan were hard to confirm.
“We don’t have information that the city is under siege but it is the only place in Iran where the protests are continuing,” she told the Guardian. “It’s true that the atmosphere in the city does feel rather unsafe. We have noted that there are more checkpoints in the city. But I think that this is due to the appointment of a new governor.”
Activists fear Iranian crackdown imminent in city of Zahedan
https://arab.news/4vhh6
Activists fear Iranian crackdown imminent in city of Zahedan
- The capital of Sistan-Baluchistan was the site of massacre of 66 protesters on ‘Bloody Friday’ in September
- Residents say checkpoints have been set up around the city, and that many people have been detained
US presses missile issue as new Iran talks to open in Geneva
- New round of negotiations in Geneva comes after the US carried out a massive military build-up in the region
- Iran’s president reiterates Tehran is not seeking nuclear weapons in line with policy
GENEVA: The United States and Iran are set to hold indirect talks in Switzerland on Thursday aiming to strike a deal to avert fresh conflict and bring an end to weeks of threats.
The new round of negotiations in Geneva comes after the US carried out a massive military build-up in the region and President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if a deal is not reached.
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Trump accused Iran of “pursuing sinister nuclear ambitions.”
He also claimed Tehran had “already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.”
The Iranian foreign ministry called these claims “big lies.”
Iran president says ahead of US talks not seeking nuclear weapon ‘at all’
TEHRAN: Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated on Thursday that Tehran was not seeking nuclear weapons in line with the policy set by the country’s supreme leader.
“Our Supreme Leader has already stated that we will not have nuclear weapons at all,” Pezeshkian said in a speech.
“Even if I wanted to move in that direction, I could not — from a doctrinal standpoint, I would not be permitted.” — AFP
The maximum range of Iran’s missiles is 2,000 kilometers according to what Tehran has publicly disclosed. However the US Congressional Research Service estimates they top out at about 3,000 kilometers — less than a third of the distance to the continental United States.
The dispute between the countries mostly revolves around Iran’s nuclear program, which the West believes is aimed at building an atomic bomb but Tehran insists is peaceful.
However the US has also been pushing to discuss Iran’s ballistic missile program, as well as Tehran’s support for armed groups hostile toward Israel.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Iran must also negotiate on its missile program, calling Tehran’s refusal to discuss ballistic weapons “a big, big problem” on the eve of the talks.
He followed up by saying “the president wants diplomatic solutions.”
Iran has taken anything beyond the nuclear issue off the negotiating table and has demanded that the US sanctions crippling its economy be part of any agreement.
‘Neither war nor peace’
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday he had a “favorable outlook for the negotiations” that could finally “move beyond this ‘neither war nor peace’ situation.”
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is leading the Iranian delegation at the talks, has called them “a historic opportunity,” adding that a deal was “within reach.”
In a foreign ministry statement that followed a meeting with his Oman counterpart, Araghchi said the success of the US negotiations depend “on the seriousness of the other side and its avoidance of contradictory behavior and positions.”
The US will be represented by envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka.
The two countries held talks earlier this month in Oman, which is mediating the negotiations, then gathered for a second round in Geneva last week.
A previous attempt at negotiations collapsed when Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran last June, beginning a 12-day war that Washington briefly joined to bomb Iranian nuclear sites.
In January, fresh tensions between the US and Iran emerged after Tehran engaged in a bloody crackdown on widespread protests that have posed one of the greatest challenges to the Islamic republic since its inception.
Trump has threatened several times to intervene to “help” the Iranian people.
Emile Hokayem, senior fellow for Middle East security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that “the region seems to expect a war at this point.”
In January, there was “a big push by a number of Middle Eastern states to convince the US not to” strike Iran.
“But there’s a lot of apprehension at this point, because the expectation is that this time” a war would be “bigger” than the one in June.
Tehran residents who spoke to AFP were divided as to whether there would be renewed conflict.
Homemaker Tayebeh noted that Trump had “said that war would be very bad for Iran.”
“There would be famine and people would suffer a lot. People are suffering now, but at least with war, our fate might be clear,” the 60-year-old said.
