Iran: Revolutionary Guards chief tells protesters today is last day on streets

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has told protesters that Saturday will be their last day of taking to the streets, in a sign that security forces may intensify their crackdown on unrest sweeping the country.

Iran has been gripped by protests since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, in the custody of the morality police last month, posing one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.

“Do not come to the streets. Today is the last day of riots,” commander, Hossein Salami, said in some of the toughest language used in the crisis, which Iran’s clerical leadership blames on its foreign enemies, including Israel and the US.

“This sinister plan, is a plan hatched … in the White House and the Zionist regime,” he said.

The Revolutionary Guards, which report directly to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have not been deployed since demonstrations began on 16 September. They are an elite force with a track record of crushing dissent.

Rights groups have said at least 250 people have been killed and thousands arrested across Iran in the protests, which have turned into a popular revolt involving all layers of society.

Video footage posted on social media on Friday showed protesters calling for the death of Khamenei and the Basij militia, which has played a major role in efforts to defuse demonstrations.

The country’s intelligence ministry and the intelligence arm of the Revolutionary Guards have accused spy agencies from the US, the UK, Israel and Saudi Arabia of having orchestrated the unrest to destabilise the Islamic republic.

Salami, who was speaking at a funeral of victims killed in an attack this week claimed by Islamic State, reiterated that message in a direct address to the protesters.

“Don’t sell your honour to America and don’t slap the security forces, who are defending you, in the face,” he said.

Iranians have defied such warnings throughout the revolt in which women have played a prominent role. There were more reports of fresh bloodshed on Saturday.

The human rights group Hengaw reported that security forces had shot at students at a girls’ school in the city of Saqqez. In another post, it said security forces had opened fire on students at the Kurdistan University of Medical Science, in the provincial capital of Sanandaj.

Several students were injured, one of them shot in the head, Hengaw said.

Reuters could not verify the report.

Videos posted on social media by activist groups purported to show protests at a number of universities across the country in cities including Ahvaz, Arak, Kerman, Kermanshah, Mashhad, Qazvin, Yazd and a dozen campuses in the capital, Tehran.

The activist HRANA news agency posted a video that it said showed protests at a university holding hands in a large circle and chanting: “If we don’t unite, we will be killed one by one.”

HRANA said 272 protesters had been killed in the unrest as of Friday, including 39 minors. And 34 members of the security force were also killed. Nearly 14,000 people have been arrested in protests in 129 towns and cities and 115 universities, it said.

The US will put the UN spotlight on the Iran protests next week and look for ways to promote credible, independent investigations into Iranian human rights abuses.

The UN secretary general’s spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, urged the Iranian authorities on Friday to address the “legitimate grievances of the population, including with respect to women’s rights”, and said security forces must avoid “all unnecessary or disproportionate use of force” against peaceful protesters.