The high-level meeting was held at the venue of Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran on Monday morning. Iran's deputy foreign ministers and the director generals at the foreign ministry also attended the meeting.
Speaking at the meeting, the top Iranian diplomat touched on the recent developments inside the country and foreign-backed riots, stressing that in the beginning, and with the peaceful protests of merchants and businessmen, Iranian security forces tried to calm the protesters through gentle means, but from January 8th, Iran entered a new and different phase.
He said that Iranian security forces, at the beginning of the protests, handled the situation with utmost patience and tried to prevent violence, adding, "In the first few days, from January 1st to 7th, we faced economic protests by the people, which were accompanied by some violence, but it was something we could tolerate. Our security forces tried to control the protests through gentle means."
"From January 8th to 10th, we witnessed the arrival of terrorist groups and the influx of weapons among the protesters. It was clear that some plans were set to divert the protests from their course and turn them into a national chaos and bloodshed," Araghchi said.
Araghchi further noted that the rioters were shooting at the police and ordinary people, aiming to increase the number of casualties. "There is information regarding this that will be made public."
"[Their] goal was to increase the number of casualties at the protest sites, as United States President Donald Trump had said that if people are killed, we will intervene. This statement itself is a blatant interference in the affairs of other countries, but the important part was that those seeking chaos used this statement to push for more deaths, hoping to provoke American intervention."
"We have recorded audio messages from outside the country, instructing these terrorist elements to shoot among the protesters. They were told to hit the police and, if unsuccessful, to target ordinary people, including young girls and boys, as long as more blood is shed. Many of those [who were killed by rioters] were shot from behind."
Araghchi described many actions of the terrorist elements as "hard to put into words."
Referring to details of crimes committed by rioters, Araghchi said, "They beheaded several police officers. They set some people on fire alive and widely burned public places, government buildings, police stations, and even shops and people's homes."
"They threatened shopkeepers to close their shops, and otherwise they would burn their shops, and this is how many shops have been set on fire. In one city's market, 200 shops were burned down. They even attacked ambulances, and in just three days, 180 ambulances were set on fire. Similarly, they attacked mosques in an odd way, because no Iranian would attack a mosque. 53 mosques across the country have been set on fire."
"They even killed the wounded. In one case, 11 wounded who people wanted to take to the hospital, the rioters told the people to give them to us, we'll take them, and then at some place they shot all 11 wounded."
Araghchi stressed that based on the evidence and confession of the rioters, the terrorists were given large sums of money. "They were paid 80 million tomans to attack each police center, 50 million tomans to burn government vehicles, and 20 million tomans to burn public properties. The evidence, confessions, and money given to them exist. Additionally, there are videos of them shooting at civilians and police forces. We even have footage of them distributing weapons among the people."
"Many people were killed by the weapons of rioters or the methods they employed. They hit the Basij forces and police with stones and bricks, leading to their martyrdom. And tried to act with terror, similar to ISIL. The third phase of the protests under these conditions is no longer called protests but rather street warfare and terrorist attacks in the country's cities."
"Since January 8th, we no longer have protests but terrorist attacks. Of course, some individuals might be among the terrorists to express their grievances, but they themselves became targets of the rioters and lost their lives. Also, from January 10th to today, we have reached the next stage where the situation has been brought under control. Our security forces have entered the third phase by detaining the terrorist elements along with their weapons."
Referring to multiple pieces of evidence of foreign intervention in the riots, Araghchu emphasized, "There is a lot of evidence of foreign intervention that will be presented to the people and the international community."
MNA/6719654
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