On the anniversary of the 2019 uprising, state news agencies blamed terrorists on two motorcycles for killing seven people at a shopping mall in the southern city of Izeh Khuzesta. But protesters said members of the Basij militia force ran over, killing among others a nine-year-old boy who was sitting in a car with his father. State news agencies said two volunteer Basij patrolmen were among the dead and 10 wounded. Another five people were killed in the Isfahan area, including security forces, in a separate shooting. Reports of other deaths in Kurdistan brought the overnight death toll to 15. Internal Iranian news agencies followed the government line that unknown anti-government forces or Islamic State terrorists were responsible, but witnesses claimed unarmed civilians were shot. The total number of deaths during the latest protests has risen to 348, according to Harana, a human rights agency, although the figures are impossible to verify. In at least three cities, seminaries were set on fire. State news agencies said the killings may be a sign that the protests were turning into an armed uprising. An investigation into the bullets in the bodies of those shot will be conducted, and now there is likely to be a huge propaganda battle in which the government will argue that the protests are the basis for the “Syrianization” of Iran and the collapse of public order. Videos posted on social media showed shops closed in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar as protesters chanted anti-government slogans. However, the state claims there is no enthusiasm for these strikes and that organized gangs have been harassing hard-pressed business owners to take down their rolls. The regime’s difficulty, acknowledged by many reformist politicians and academics in Iran, is that many protesters have long since stopped getting their news from what they see as completely discredited official sources and rely instead on either internal social media or on international satellite broadcasts in Farsi. channels, such as BBC Persian or Iran International. At least five protesters have now been formally sentenced to death, according to the media center for the judiciary, one for allegedly setting fire to a government building. The protests started over the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, but have since turned into a wider protest against the regime, which the French president, Emmanuel Macron, likened to a revolution. Speaking in Bali on Wednesday, Macron said: “Something has changed [on the ground in Iran] it is this revolution of women, the youth of Iran, who defend universal values such as gender equality. It is important to commend the courage and legitimacy of this struggle.” Iran’s interior minister, Ahmad Vahiidi, claimed that several alleged French intelligence agents had been arrested. He said: “People of other nationalities were arrested in the riots, some of whom played a big role. There was evidence from French intelligence and it will be dealt with according to the law.” Seven French nationals were arrested, possibly in response to Macron’s meeting with exiled Iranians opposed to the regime. France is one of a group of Western nations preparing to vote to censure Iran at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board in Vienna this week. The resolution condemns Iran for failing to cooperate with UN nuclear inspectors over its nuclear program, saying Iran’s uranium stockpile is now 18 times higher than the limit set by the original 20115 nuclear deal. Deputy US envoy to the IAEA, Louis Bono, told the board on Wednesday that Iran’s production of 60% enriched uranium has no valid peaceful justification. IAEA director Raphael Grossi said on Wednesday that the now six-month absence of UN inspectors meant there was now a mass of activity the IAEA was unaware of. He still hopes that a visit to Tehran can be agreed. Iran has threatened to cancel any visit if the censure motion is passed. However, the West appears to be rethinking its entire strategy towards Iran, something that the Iranian political establishment is only beginning to realize. Domestic protests and evidence that Iran was supplying Russia with drones to help attack Ukraine have left advocates of reviving the nuclear deal scrambling for political ground. So far, criticism inside Iran of the decision to side with Russia on Ukraine, given the inevitable wider diplomatic impact, has not been strong enough to challenge hardliners’ dominance in foreign policy.
