Popular Demands Need Government’s Sincere, Effective Response

A lawmaker called for the government's sincere, effective response to the popular demands that resulted in recent protests across the country.

"People's demands should receive a practical response and the government owes them an apology for failing to heed their calls," Hossein Maqsoudi said in a recent talk with ICANA.

Protests that erupted across the country late last month over the state of the economy saw sporadic violence and clashes between the protestors and police, leaving at least 21 people dead and hundreds others arrested.

Iranian officials have declared the end of the unrest, which initially began over price rises and corruption.

Another lawmaker, Bahram Parsaei decried violence in anti-government protests, but highlighted the terms of the Constitution that enshrine people's right to peaceful demonstration.

"Based on article 27 of the Constitution, protests are the inalienable right of the people," Parsaei said.

Iran accused the US of abusing its power as a permanent member of the UN Security Council after it convened an emergency session on Friday over the unrest.

US officials, including President Donald Trump, have been vocal in their support for the protests since they began. The US envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, told the council on Friday that Washington stood "unapologetically with those in Iran who seek freedom for themselves, prosperity for their families and dignity for their nation".

The move to hold the emergency meeting met criticism from other council members, including Russia, whose envoy described the protests as an "internal affair".

French Ambassador Francois Delattre, a close ally of the United States, echoed the stance of his Russian counterpart.

"It is up to the Iranians, and to the Iranians alone, to pursue the path of peaceful dialogue, a dialogue based on full respect for the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Iranian people," Delattre told the council.

"However worrying the events of the last few days in Iran may be, they do not constitute, per se, a threat to international peace and security."

Iranian officials have blamed the demonstrations on foreign meddling and at the UN on Friday, Iranian envoy Gholamali Khoshroo said Tehran had "hard evidence" that they were "very clearly directed from abroad".

"It is unfortunate that despite the resistance on the part of some of its members, this council has allowed itself to be abused by the current US administration in holding a meeting on an issue that falls outside the scope of its mandate," Khoshroo said in his statement.