US And Western Allegations Of Anti-Government Protests, Iranian President Raisi: The Enemy Will Not Achieve Its Goals

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. (Wikimedia Commons/Tasnim News Agency/Amir Sadeghan)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has accused the United States and Western countries of sparking anti-government protests in Iran, by spreading rumors and misinformation, Al-Alam TV channel reported on Wednesday.

"The enemy of revolution will not achieve their goal of causing dispute among the Iranian people by spreading lies," he said in Tehran in a meeting with veterans of the Iran-Irak war of 1980-1988, reported by TASS December 29.

"Young people are our children and everyone who is deceived will be greeted by their homeland, but there is no mercy for the traitors," he added.

According to Iran's President, "hypogs, monarchies and counter-revolutionarys, namely, all those opposed to Tehran's government" were involved in regulating disturbances and unrest that erupted in Iran in mid-September.

On Monday, Iran's prosecutor's office reported about 83 percent of protesters detained earlier by police and security services had been released by the authorities.

A statement quoted by the Tasnim news agency noted, "for the past three months, the judge who oversees the cases of the protesters visited the prison 2,239 times and had private conversations with the detainees."

In October and November, Iranian authorities repeatedly granted clemency to demonstrators taking part in demonstrations in Sanandaj, the administrative centers of Kurdistan, and Zahedan, the capital cities of the provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan.

A group of protesters were also released in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, inhabited by ethnic Arab tribes, and in Ardabil, Azerbaijan.

On December 26, the United States urged Iran to release all unconditional protesters. US State Department spokesman Ned Price stressed it was about "all people imprisoned in Iran for carrying out their freedoms peacefully."

Iran has been hit by protests since Mahsa Amini's 22-year-old death on September 16. According to the official version, this Kurdish girl was detained by the police for not wearing her headscarf properly. During the next interrogation, she suffered a heart attack and died. However, social media spread the news that Amini had been beaten by police.

On October 7, the Iranian Forensic Medicine Authority published an official report on the cause of his death, which noted he was not traumatized.

Separately, the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported that three months of protests and protests had spread to include 157 cities and residential areas, with protesters demanding democratic change, condemning the country's repression and calling for the release of those arrested.

According to news outlets, overall, 18,500 people have been detained in Iran since mid-September. Meanwhile, about 507 activists and 66 members of the security forces were killed in the riots.