Praise The Courage Of The Young Generation In Protesting In Iran, Blinken: Give Up What Rights To Say And Off

Illustration of protests in Iran. (Wikimedia Commons/Darafsh)

JAKARTA - The United States Secretary of State praised the courage and struggle of Iran's young generation, in the protests they have held in recent months in various Iranian cities.

Demonstrations have rocked Iran for several months, sparking a deadly crackdown on the authorities. The growing demonstration became the first 'insurgency' since the 1979 revolution, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in mid-September after being detained by state morality police.

Since then, protesters across Iran have united in various complaints against the Tehran government.

Iranian Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said Thursday the Iranian parliament and judiciary were reviewing the country's mandatory headscarf law, according to the pro-reforming outlet Entekhab.

Montazeri was also quoted as saying Iran's feared morality police had been "deleted", but Iranian state media strongly rejected the comments, saying the interior ministry overseeing the unit was not a judiciary.

In an interview with CBS 'Face the Nation' on Sunday, Antony Blinken would not say whether the US believed a move to abolish morality police would end protests in the country.

"That's up to the Iranian people. It's about that. It's not about us. And what we've seen since the killing of Mahsa Amini is the extraordinary courage of young Iranians, especially women, who have led these protests, defending the right to be able to say what they want to say, wear what they want to wear," Foreign Minister Blinken said.

In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper at "State of the Union, Foreign Minister Blinken pointed to US sanctions against those responsible for the crackdown on protesters in Iran."

"We support the rights of people everywhere, both in China, in Iran, elsewhere, to protest peacefully, to express their views, to vent their frustrations," Foreign Minister Blinken said.

Foreign Minister Blinken said the protests in China and Iran were not about the US.

"It's about people in both countries trying to express their views, trying to fulfill their aspirations, and the response the government has taken to that."

It is known that protests in Iran entered its third month with Human Rights Group HRANA saying that as of Friday 469 protesters had been killed, including 64 minors. It said 61 government security forces were also killed. In addition, 18,210 protesters are believed to have been arrested, as quoted by Reuters.

Meanwhile, Javaid Rehman, an independent UN-appointed expert in Iran, said on Tuesday more than 300 people died in the protests, including more than 40 children.

Meanwhile, Mizan's news agency quoted the state security board, Ministry of Home Affairs as saying 200 people were killed in a recent "crush".

Last Monday, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said about 300 people, including members of the security forces, had died in recent riots.