(Update: Adds reaction from Twitter on Iranian leaders' use of the platform.)
(CNSNews.com) – Amid reports of a rising death toll in protests across Iran, the regime’s foreign ministry on Sunday criticized Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for voicing support for the protestors, accusing the administration of responsibility for the “economic terrorism” causing suffering to the Iranian people in the first place.
The U.S. argues that the plight faced by ordinary Iranians is the result of a corrupt regime that enriches itself and funds proxies and fuels instability across the region.
The White House said Sunday the U.S. “supports the Iranian people in their peaceful protests against the regime that is supposed to lead them.”
“We condemn the lethal force and severe communications restrictions used against demonstrators,” press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.
“Tehran has fanatically pursued nuclear weapons and missile programs, and supported terrorism, turning a proud nation into another cautionary tale of what happens when a ruling class abandons its people and embarks on a crusade for personal power and riches.”
Iranian opposition sources claim more than 25 people have been killed since the latest wave of protests began on Friday. Iranian media outlets report at least 1,000 detentions. Figures have not been independently confirmed.
Sparked by President Hassan Rouhani’s announcement of a massive fuel price hike coupled with rationing, the protests have taken on a broader anti-regime tone.
Video clips posted on social media show demonstrators chanting slogans against Rouhani, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and regime policies across the region – including references to its interference in Syria and support for Palestinian terrorist groups.
Billboards featuring images of Khamenei and Rouhani have been set ablaze or defaced, along with buildings and vehicles associated with the regime, including branches of state-owned banks.
In some cities, protesters have stopped vehicles on thoroughfares and walked away, bringing traffic to a standstill.
The regime’s response has included targeting organizers’ communications by cutting off Internet access and disabling the country’s largest cellphone networks.
“I think that this is one of the most important stories around the world that’s happening this weekend,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told Fox News.
When Iran secured sanctions relief from the U.S. and its allies as a result of the 2015 nuclear deal, she said, “we never saw that money going to the Iranian people.”
‘The billions of dollars in sanctions relief weren’t used for new roads, new hospitals, new schools,” Ortagus added. “Instead that money was used to fund Iran’s terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East.”
After Pompeo earlier tweeted his support for the protesters, regime foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Iranians were well aware “that such hypocrite statements are completely void of sincere sympathy.”
Mousavi said it was strange seeing expressions of sympathy from “the same person who has already said that the Iranian people should be starved to surrender.”
(Tehran has for months been accusing Pompeo of wanting to “starve” Iranians, citing his comment a year ago that “the Iranian leadership has to make a decision that they want their people to eat.”
Pompeo had been making the point that the regime had to decide if it wants to use humanitarian exemptions to U.S. sanctions to import food and medicine, or continue to expend its resources funding “death and destruction” across the region.)
The National Iranian American Council (NIAC), which advocates engagement with the regime, criticized its use of force against protestors, but also took the opportunity to call for an end to U.S. sanctions, which it said were emboldening “hardline elements.”
https://cnsnews.com/article/interna...nian-protesters-against-corrupt-regime-regime
(CNSNews.com) – Amid reports of a rising death toll in protests across Iran, the regime’s foreign ministry on Sunday criticized Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for voicing support for the protestors, accusing the administration of responsibility for the “economic terrorism” causing suffering to the Iranian people in the first place.
The U.S. argues that the plight faced by ordinary Iranians is the result of a corrupt regime that enriches itself and funds proxies and fuels instability across the region.
The White House said Sunday the U.S. “supports the Iranian people in their peaceful protests against the regime that is supposed to lead them.”
“We condemn the lethal force and severe communications restrictions used against demonstrators,” press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.
“Tehran has fanatically pursued nuclear weapons and missile programs, and supported terrorism, turning a proud nation into another cautionary tale of what happens when a ruling class abandons its people and embarks on a crusade for personal power and riches.”
Iranian opposition sources claim more than 25 people have been killed since the latest wave of protests began on Friday. Iranian media outlets report at least 1,000 detentions. Figures have not been independently confirmed.
Sparked by President Hassan Rouhani’s announcement of a massive fuel price hike coupled with rationing, the protests have taken on a broader anti-regime tone.
Video clips posted on social media show demonstrators chanting slogans against Rouhani, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and regime policies across the region – including references to its interference in Syria and support for Palestinian terrorist groups.
Billboards featuring images of Khamenei and Rouhani have been set ablaze or defaced, along with buildings and vehicles associated with the regime, including branches of state-owned banks.
In some cities, protesters have stopped vehicles on thoroughfares and walked away, bringing traffic to a standstill.
The regime’s response has included targeting organizers’ communications by cutting off Internet access and disabling the country’s largest cellphone networks.
“I think that this is one of the most important stories around the world that’s happening this weekend,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told Fox News.
When Iran secured sanctions relief from the U.S. and its allies as a result of the 2015 nuclear deal, she said, “we never saw that money going to the Iranian people.”
‘The billions of dollars in sanctions relief weren’t used for new roads, new hospitals, new schools,” Ortagus added. “Instead that money was used to fund Iran’s terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East.”
After Pompeo earlier tweeted his support for the protesters, regime foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Iranians were well aware “that such hypocrite statements are completely void of sincere sympathy.”
Mousavi said it was strange seeing expressions of sympathy from “the same person who has already said that the Iranian people should be starved to surrender.”
(Tehran has for months been accusing Pompeo of wanting to “starve” Iranians, citing his comment a year ago that “the Iranian leadership has to make a decision that they want their people to eat.”
Pompeo had been making the point that the regime had to decide if it wants to use humanitarian exemptions to U.S. sanctions to import food and medicine, or continue to expend its resources funding “death and destruction” across the region.)
The National Iranian American Council (NIAC), which advocates engagement with the regime, criticized its use of force against protestors, but also took the opportunity to call for an end to U.S. sanctions, which it said were emboldening “hardline elements.”
https://cnsnews.com/article/interna...nian-protesters-against-corrupt-regime-regime
