The president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, has appealed this Tuesday to "national unity" in order to calm the anger towards the rulers at a time when the protests that have plunged the country into chaos in recent weeks have spread to universities and secondary schools. After acknowledging that the Islamic Republic has "weaknesses and shortcomings", the president has maintained the official line of attributing the blame for the riots caused by the death of a 22-year-old woman in the custody of the Moral Police to the "conspiracies of the enemies".
"Today the determination of the country is aimed at cooperation to reduce the problems of the people", Raisi affirmed in the session of Parliament, which has met to vote for the presidential candidate who will lead the Ministry of Labour, and added: " Unity and national integrity are necessary to weaken our enemy."
The president has affirmed that Iran has "weaknesses and shortcomings", but has again blamed the protests on the "conspiracies of the enemies" without offering any type of evidence. His statements echo those of Iran's supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who blamed the United States and Israel for the "riots and upheavals" in his first comments on the national protests on Monday.Raisi has praised the country's supreme leader's "comprehensive analysis," which notes that conspiracies against the country is because they are making progress and "the enemy doesn't want Iran to make progress," the president said.
The presidential candidate to head the Ministry of Labor has not obtained the necessary votes, so the post will remain vacant -as has been the case since June-, but the parliamentary session has served Raisi to call for national unity after three weeks of protests over the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, after being arrested two days earlier by the Moral Police for not wearing the veil.
The protests, which arose in response to the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, after being arrested two days earlier by the Moral Police for not wearing the veil, begin their third week, spreading to universities and secondary schools around the world. country. Tehran's Sharif Technological University, one of the most prestigious in the country, has closed its doors and suspended face-to-face classes indefinitely after heavy clashes with gunshots in the air on Sunday night ended with the arrest of several students.
Some videos broadcast by journalists and activists through social networks show how these protests are spreading to schools. "Woman, life, freedom" is the cry that the students launch in a school in the city of Sanandaj, in Iranian Kurdistan, while waving their veils, according to a video published by activists. Another video shows a group of young people throwing their veils at a teacher in the city of Karaj, in Alborz province.
The profile of the protests, which pose the greatest widespread challenge to the Iranian government in years, varies as the weeks go by - from large protests in the streets to mobilizations in universities or gestures of disobedience by removing the veil - and so does the repression carried out by the Police -from the use of batons, tear gas and water cannons to, according to the UN, live ammunition-. Iranian state television reported more than a week ago that the clashes have claimed the lives of 41 people, but Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based NGO, puts the figure at 92 dead.
