TEHRAN – Tens of thousands gathered across Iran on Wednesday in a massiveshow of strength for the regime after days of deadly unrest, with statetelevision showing vast crowds marching through several cities.
Chants of “Leader, we are ready” were heard as images showed thousandsrallying in the cities of Ahvaz, Kermanshah, Gorgan and elsewhere.
The demonstrators waved Iranian flags and pictures of supreme leaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as placards saying “Death to seditionists”.
“We offer the blood in our veins to our leader,” was another popular chant.ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD
There were few reports of anti-regime protests overnight after thepolitical establishment closed ranks against the unrest since last weekthat has left at least 21 dead.
Washington continued to exert pressure on the Islamic republic, with itsUnited Nations (UN) Ambassador Nikki Haley calling for emergency UN talksto discuss the situation.
“The people of Iran are crying out for freedom,” she said at a newsconference. “All freedom-loving people must stand with their cause.”
Iran’s leaders have said the protests, which began over economic issues onDecember 28 but quickly turned more radical, were part of a foreign plot todestabilise the regime.
“The enemies have united and are using all their means, money, weapons,policies and security services to create problems for the Islamic regime,”Khamenei said.
“The enemy is always looking for an opportunity and any crevice toinfiltrate and strike the Iranian nation.”’The poor under pressure’
Even reformists, who backed the last major protest movement against allegedelection-rigging in 2009, condemned the violence and the support it hasreceived from the United States (US).
But they also urged the authorities to address economic grievances thathave fuelled the protests.
“Officials must acknowledge the deplorable situation of the country as thefirst step to hearing the protesters,” tweeted Mohammad Taghi Karroubi,whose father Mehdi Karroubi has been under house arrest for almost sevenyears for helping lead the 2009 demonstrations.
Many have been turned off by the violence, which contrasted with thelargely peaceful marches in 2009.
But on the streets of the capital, there is widespread sympathy with theeconomic grievances driving the unrest, particularly an unemployment rateas high as 40 percent for young people.
“The poorer section of society is really under pressure,” Sakineh Eidi, a37-year-old pharmacist in Tehran, told AFP. “But I don’t think it willcontinue.”
“Even those who maybe acted emotionally, vandalising things and settingfire to public property, know that the smoke will get into everyone’s eyesand that insecurity in the country is not in anyone’s interest.”
Others rejected the official line that foreign powers were behind theunrest.
“I don’t agree. People have reached a stage where they can no longertolerate this pressure from the authorities. They have burst and are nowout in the streets,” said Soraya Saadaat, a 54-year-old unemployed woman.