The protests against the mullahs’ regime have apparently been suppressed. According to Chancellor Christian Stocker, Austria will support sanctions against Iran. Meanwhile, Putin offered himself as a mediator.
The protests in Iran have been largely suppressed by the security forces. As the Norwegian-based Iranian-Kurdish human rights group Hengaw announced, there have been no protest demonstrations against the mullahs’ regime since Sunday. However, the security situation remains “very restrictive”. Meanwhile, ÖVP Chancellor Christian Stocker announced that Austria would support all measures, including sanctions, against Tehran.
In addition, after a meeting with EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola in Vienna, the Chancellor condemned the “unprecedented violence of the Iranian regime in the strongest terms.” Metsola was “horrified” by the extent of the deadly violence on the part of those in power.
While the protests have been suppressed in Iran itself, they continue abroad. There will be several small and one larger rallies in Vienna this weekend. At the demonstration “Stop the dictatorship in Iran!” The police are expecting around 2,000 participants at Heldenplatz on Sunday afternoon. They will move across Michaelerplatz and Schwarzenbergplatz to the Iranian embassy. A vigil with a sea of lights by Amnesty Austria took place in front of the embassy on Thursday evening.
On Friday, SPÖ-EU delegation leader Andreas Schieder said at a solidarity demonstration organized by the SPÖ Vienna-Döbling that the whole world is currently looking at the brave people in Iran. “They should know that they are not alone. Europe stands firmly by their side and is ready to support them.” SPÖ MEP Evelyn Regner emphasized that human rights must apply “always and everywhere”.
The Greens called for the immediate expulsion of the Iranian ambassador and official representatives of the regime. “There can be no diplomatic normality with an Islamist terrorist regime that murders its own population en masse,” said foreign policy spokeswoman Meri Disoski.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to mediate in the conflict. According to the Kremlin, Putin called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Putin spoke out in favor of political and diplomatic means to ensure peace and stability in the region, it said. This can be understood as criticism of a possible military strike by the USA and Israel against Iran in order to support the protest movement there.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump thanked the leadership in Tehran for canceling planned executions of protesters. “I have great respect for the fact that all scheduled executions by rope that were scheduled to take place yesterday (more than 800) have been canceled by the leadership of Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, concluding with “Thank you!”
Over the past two weeks, the US President has repeatedly threatened military intervention in Iran to come to the aid of the demonstrators. Trump is currently holding back on military intervention. On Wednesday he said he had learned from a “reliable source” that “the killings in Iran have stopped.”
Trump also rejected statements from the Gulf region that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman had talked him out of attacking Iran. It was Iran’s actions that influenced him, Trump told reporters as he left the White House to spend the weekend in Florida. “Nobody convinced me – I convinced myself,” he said. “They didn’t hang anyone. They canceled the executions. That had a big impact.”
Residents of Tehran said the situation was now calm. However, there may still be isolated unrest in other parts of the country. The state-affiliated news agency TASNIM reported that rioters set fire to an education authority office in Isfahan province.
According to the US human rights group HRANA, 2,677 people have been killed in the unrest so far. Accordingly, there were more than 19,000 arrests, as a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin also announced. The numbers cannot be independently verified. An Iranian representative spoke of around 2,000 deaths at the beginning of the week.
According to media reports, foreign militias were also involved in the violent suppression of the mass protests. Movements of Shiite militias from Lebanon have been observed leaving the country over the past 10 days, a security source said. The men officially traveled on pilgrimages to Iraq, where there are central shrines of Shiite Islam.
On Thursday, the US broadcaster CNN, citing a source in Iraq, reported that almost 5,000 fighters from various militant groups had traveled to their neighboring country in recent weeks to support the Iranian state. According to CNN, a European military source spoke of a good 800 Shiites.
According to CNN, the fighters belong to groups that are subordinate to the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) in Iraq – an influential network that was founded in 2014 to combat the Islamic State (IS) and now plays a central political and military role in the country, partly as a parallel structure to the Iraqi state. The men from Lebanon are believed to be supporters of the Shiite militia Hezbollah.
The Internet in Iran remained blocked. This means that the full extent of state violence remains hidden even more than a week after the blockade began. The approximately 90 million residents now experience considerable restrictions in their everyday lives. Online banking, for example, is still disrupted, as a man from Tehran described. Since Tuesday, Iranians have been able to make calls abroad again – but they cannot be called back. The calls are expensive and can be monitored, further limiting contact into the country. It is completely unclear when the lockdowns will be lifted.
The Iranian government blames foreign enemies for inciting the unrest. The protests were sparked on December 28 by high inflation and have become one of the biggest challenges to the country’s clerical leadership since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. (APA/Reuters)