Von der Leyen condemns violent crackdown on Iranian protesters

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The anti-government demonstrations continued on Saturday, amid studies of overwhelmed hospitals and an attraction by the Iranian navy to residents asking them to foil “enemy plots.”

In line with the group Human Rights Activists in Iran, at the least 65 folks had been killed as of Friday, 2,311 people had been arrested, and protests had been recorded at 512 areas in 180 cities. Time journal reported Friday that greater than 200 folks have died within the protests.

A Western diplomat informed POLITICO that studies of a better loss of life toll than what has at present been reported, citing NGOs, have been “credible.” A spokesperson for the exiled opposition group NCRI stated that primarily based on preliminary assessments of the variety of killed in smaller Iranian cities, it was probably that the loss of life toll was considerably increased than could possibly be formally confirmed.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola Saturday night referred to as for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be designated as a terrorist group and for extra sanctions to be imposed on the Iranian regime.

“These braving the streets, these political prisoners nonetheless being detained, want extra than simply phrases, Europe can act,” Metsola stated in a submit on X. “As one step: by designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group and by urgently additional extending EU sanctions to all these people propping up the regime by means of repression, violence and homicide.”

Metsola already had backed the protesters on Thursday — incomes a rebuke from the Iranian Mission to the EU — and the European Union’s high diplomat Kaja Kallas referred to as any violence towards protesters “unacceptable.” Different MEPs echoed Metsola’s remarks, together with German Inexperienced Hannah Neumann, who chairs the Parliament’s delegation for relations with Tehran. She described the protests as a “breaking level” for Iran.