Iran’s crackdown on protesters likely to ‘intensify’ in coming days: expert

The Iranian government’s crackdown on protesters is likely to “intensify” in coming days despite Canadian sanctions and international condemnation, says expert, calling Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali’s blame “predictable.” Khamenei, foreign citizens for the riots.

Iran has been the subject of protests for the past three weeks since the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being detained by Iran’s morality police. Protesters have been calling for greater freedoms and an end to the repression that binds women within the Islamic Republic.

On Monday, Canada officially imposed sanctions on 25 individuals and nine entities “in connection with Iran’s gross and systematic human rights violations,” including the leader of Iran’s morality police.

Nader Hashemi, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver, told CTV News Channel that while these sanctions are important, they are unlikely to do much to quell the unrest.

“As far as I know, Iran’s morality police chief had no plans to travel to Canada and has no known assets here, so the practical effect in affecting the lives of these repressive actors is quite limited. ” he said.

However, he praised the targeted nature of Canada’s sanctions, noting that US President Joe Biden’s Monday statement on the situation was vague. Biden announced that the perpetrators of the violence would be assessed additional costs, without specifying.

“The Canadian statement was actually much more accurate and progressive: They actually named the people responsible for the crackdown in Iran and sanctioned them,” Hashemi said.

“You don’t want broad-based sanctions that hit innocent people who are not responsible for the policies of the Islamic Republic.”

The value of Canada’s sanctions is more symbolic, and Hashemi hopes other countries will do the same.

“They are symbolically very important to the protesters in Iran and also to Iranian-Canadian people, who are also very upset about what is happening in their homeland,” he said. Iran

He added that decision-makers in Canada should listen to leaders on the ground in Iran to learn how they could take additional steps to help in this situation.

Iran’s supreme leader issued his first public comments on the protests on Monday, calling them “riots” and blaming US and Israeli interference rather than addressing protesters’ criticism of Iran’s policies.

“This is straight out of the authoritarian leader’s playbook, chapter three: When you have a big crisis, you blame foreign enemies, you never take responsibility,” Hasemi said.

“It is a sign of panic, it is a sign of desperation, and in fact it will probably embolden the protesters, because the Supreme Leader, as expected, did not take any responsibility for his own policies that have brought Iran to this crisis point. .

Hasemi expects the protests to continue, but warned that the tide is unlikely to turn in his favor any time soon.

“This is a very brutal regime, they are not going to just pack up and leave because of these protests, they are going to crack down,” he said.

“And it remains to be seen how far the crackdown will go and whether the protesters can resist the crackdown that is currently underway but will, I suspect, intensify very quickly in the coming weeks and months.”

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