Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed Monday to make sure the morality police would not “trouble” ladies, in remarks to the media on the second anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s loss of life in custody.
Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died in police custody on September 16, 2022, days after the morality police arrested her in Tehran for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict costume code for ladies.
Her loss of life triggered months-long protests nationwide, with tons of of individuals killed, together with dozens of safety personnel. 1000’s of demonstrators had been arrested.
“The morality police weren’t alleged to confront (ladies). I’ll comply with up so they do not trouble” them, Pezeshkian stated throughout his first press convention in Iran since he took workplace in July.
Pezeshkian changed the ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in Could.
Throughout election campaigning, he had vowed to “absolutely” oppose police patrols implementing the necessary hijab headband, in addition to easing long-standing web restrictions.
Iran has through the years tightly managed web use, proscribing standard social media platforms resembling Fb and X.
Harsher curbs had been enforced following 2019 protests in opposition to gasoline worth hikes and through the demonstrations triggered by Amini’s loss of life.
On Monday, Pezeshkian stated his authorities was working to ease restrictions on-line, particularly on social media.
– Relations with the West –
At his press convention, Pezeshkian briefly touched on different subjects together with Iran’s fraught relations with the USA and the 2015 nuclear deal.
“We don’t need to combat with America if it respects our rights,” he stated.
“It isn’t us who’re hostile (to the People). We now have not constructed navy bases round their nation,” Pezeshkian added, referring to US bases within the Gulf and in Iraq.
Iran and the USA have had no diplomatic relations since 1980, the 12 months after the Islamic Revolution that toppled its Western-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.
A landmark 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers granted Iran sanctions reduction in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.
However the deal shortly collapsed and tensions reignited after the USA unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran the next 12 months.
Iran has since suspended its compliance with caps on nuclear actions.
“We aren’t in search of nuclear weapons. We now have revered the framework of the nuclear settlement,” Pezeshkian stated.
He charged that Washington “broke the settlement and compelled us to do one thing.”
Pezeshkian additionally spoke about newly imposed European sanctions concentrating on Iranian air transport over accusations that Tehran had delivered ballistic missiles to Russia to be used within the Ukraine warfare.
Iran has repeatedly denied sending weapons to Russia to be used within the warfare, and vowed to answer the newest in a protracted string of Western sanctions.
Pezeshkian stated Iran has “not given” Russia any weapons at the least since he assumed the presidency.
“It’s potential that Iran and Russia had navy cooperation up to now… as a result of there was no ban on the time,” he stated.
“What I can say with certainty is that since our arrival, we have now not given them something.”
– ‘Disarm Israel’ –
He additionally insisted on Iran’s proper to take care of its missile programme, which has drawn Western criticism, as a deterrent in opposition to its arch-foe Israel.
“They (the West) need us to not have missiles, that’s nice, however you could disarm Israel first,” he stated, including that in any other case “they will drop bombs on us at any time when they need, like in Gaza”.
Pezeshkian additionally stated “we do not have in Iran the kind of hypersonic missile” that Tehran-backed Huthi rebels claimed to have fired at Israel on Sunday, rejecting accusations that Iran had provided the missile used within the uncommon assault.
Iranian International Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier denied as an entire any weapons switch to Yemen.
Israel launched a relentless marketing campaign in opposition to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, following the October 7 assault that resulted within the deaths of 1,205 folks, principally civilians, based on an AFP tally based mostly on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s offensive has killed at the least 41,226 folks in Gaza, based on the territory’s well being ministry.
Tehran hailed Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israel however denied any involvement.
Iran doesn’t recognise Israel, and has made help for the Palestinian trigger a centrepiece of its overseas coverage for the reason that Islamic Revolution in 1979.
