The death toll from a crackdown over Iran’s nationwide protests last month has reached at least 7,002 people killed, with many more still feared dead, activists said yesterday.
The slow rise in the number of dead from the demonstrations adds to the overall tensions facing Iran inside the country and abroad as it tries to negotiate with the US over its nuclear program.
A second round of talks remains up in the air, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed his case directly with US President Donald Trump to intensify his demands on Tehran in the negotiations.
Photo: AFP
However, the US appears “willing” to tolerate some nuclear enrichment, Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan told the Financial Times in an interview published yesterday.
“It is positive that the Americans appear willing to tolerate Iranian enrichment within clearly set boundaries,” Fidan, who has been involved in talks with Washington and Tehran, told the Financial Times.
Fidan said he believed Tehran “genuinely wants to reach a real agreement,” and would accept restrictions on enrichment levels and a strict inspection regime, as it did in the 2015 agreement with the US and others.
Photo: AP
Meanwhile, Iran at home faces still-simmering anger over its wide-ranging suppression of dissent in the Islamic republic.
That rage might intensify in the coming days as families of the dead begin marking the traditional 40-day mourning for the loved ones.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which offered the latest figures, has been accurate in counting deaths during previous rounds of unrest in Iran and relies on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths.
Iran’s government offered its only death toll on Jan. 21, saying 3,117 people were killed. Iran’s theocracy in the past has undercounted or not reported fatalities from past unrest.
Meanwhile, Iranian authorities have dismissed a provincial television director after a reporter appeared to call for the death of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The incident happened during Wednesday’s live broadcast of the 47th anniversary of the Islamic revolution in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province.
During the live feed, Musab Rasoulizad was describing the turnout at the rallies, and repeating chants heard in the crowd such as “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”).
He then said “Marg bar Khamenei” (“death to Khamenei”), rather one of the chants typically heard at government-organized such rallies, which include “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
“The broadcast director of Hamoun provincial TV channel has been dismissed following an error that occurred on the provincial network,” state television said on Wednesday. “The transmission operator and broadcast supervisor were suspended. Other staff found at fault were also referred to the disciplinary committee.”
In a later video, Rasoulizad appeared to apologize for what he called a “slip of the tongue and a blunder which was broadcast and became a pretext for anti-revolutionaries.”
Additional reporting by Reuters and AFP
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