President Hassan Rouhani calls for ‘clemency’ for unarmed demonstrators during Iran’s recent fuel price rise protests.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has called for the release of any unarmed and innocent people arrested during the protests against fuel price increases after two weeks of violent clashes.
The unrest, which began on November 15 after the government abruptly raised fuel prices by as much as 300 percent, spread to more than 100 Iranian cities and towns and turned political as young and working-class protesters demanded the religious leaders step down. ”Religious and Islamic clemency should be shown and those innocent people who protested against petrol price hikes and were not armed … should be released,” Rouhani said in a televised speech on Wednesday. Iran’s religious rulers have blamed “thugs” linked to its opponents in exile and the country’s main foreign foes – the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia – for the deadly protests that paralysed the oil-rich nation. ”The aim of our enemies was to endanger the existence of the Islamic republic by igniting riots in Iran… But America and the Zionist regime [Israel] lack political wisdom about Iran and the Iranians,” said the chief commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, in another televised speech last week.
Tehran has given no official death toll, but Amnesty International on Monday said it documented the deaths of at least 208 protesters, making the disturbances the bloodiest since the 1979 uprising that swept the Shia leaders to power.
Iran rejected the rights group’s claim, calling it “biased”.
An Iranian legislator said last week that about 7,000 protesters had been arrested. The country’s judiciary, however, rejected the figures.
Last week, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence said at least eight people linked to the CIA were arrested during the unrest, which was snuffed out by a security crackdown.
Source: aljazeera.com
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
