There are also Italians, at least one among those arrested in Tehran during the anti-hijab protests linked to the death of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini; total chaos reigns more and more in Iran, it seems that the protests no longer know borders. In a statement, the Ministry of Intelligence stated that nine foreign nationals are in custody on suspicion of being involved in various capacities in the street protests along with 256 other members of opposition groups not recognized by the government. The Iranian news agency IRNA reports that they come from Italy, Germany, Poland, France, the Netherlands, Sweden.
By now the unrest that has spread to the Islamic Republic has entered the third week, the use of firearms is growing to suppress protests where the number of victims is increasing day by day. The Iranian government claims that the demonstrations that have engulfed the country in recent days have been instigated by foreigners, strong accusations against Western and Israeli intelligence services, guilty of organizing training courses for expert trainers in subversive actions to be used during the protests.
The statement from the Iranian intelligence ministry came after Amnesty International said leaked documents from government sources testify to precise orders given to security forces on how to unscrupulously deal with any form of dissent. Amensty International has overwhelming evidence in its hands on the deadly consequences of the repression by the Iranian security forces against those who have been peacefully protesting the death of Mahsa Amini for days. It seems that the Revolutionary Guard, the Basiji paramilitary forces and plainclothes agents are sowing death on the streets of at least ten Iranian provinces, using bullets of any kind. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, in addition to raising the bar against street demonstrations, is broadening his range of action by targeting Iraqi Kurdistan. In fact, Tehran has launched a wave of attacks in the past few hours, which have caused the death of nine people in the autonomous region. He did so after the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) claims that the affected area was home to armed groups that infiltrated the Islamic Republic to fuel the ongoing riots. In reality, the strikes were intended to destroy the offices of a number of opposition Kurdish parties such as the Kurdistan Freedom Party and the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran. The Iranian government is in fact trying to achieve two objectives: on the one hand, divert attention from the fact that it is unable to counter the protests, which are constantly increasing despite the harsh repression; on the other hand, neutralizing the internal Kurdish opposition before it becomes too strong and therefore represents a concrete threat to the regime. The repression has attracted widespread international condemnation, the demonstrations of solidarity towards Iranian women are increasing like wildfire all over the world, about a hundred protest marches are expected around the planet in the coming days.