Rejecting the reported number, i.e. 1500, by Reuters, Rabeie said “Releasing false and baseless statistics, they do not respect lives of people.”
The London-based news outlet said in a report on Monday that, “About 1,500 people were killed during less than two weeks of unrest that started on November 15, including at least 17 teenagers and about 400 women as well as some members of the security forces and police.”
Reuters claimed that the figures had been provided “by three Iranian interior ministry officials,” without further elaboration or naming any of them.
Shortly after the report, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council dismissed the Reuters’ report and said such claims were based on “false propaganda.”
“Such types of news writing and making accusations are by no means a complicated task. These claims are leveled based on a set of premeditated psychological warfare and lack credibility,” head of the SNSC’s Information and Communications Secretariat Alireza Zarifian Yeganeh said.
“The protestations that Reuters made in its report are totally worthless not only in terms of security issues and intelligence but in the field of news and media, and will damage the already-tarnished credibility of this agency,” he added.
MNA/ 4807258