Iran president says Amini ‘riots’ pave way for attacks

PARIS: Iran´s president on Thursday claimed “riots” sparked by Mahsa Amini´s death paved the way for “terrorist” attacks, a day after a gunman killed at least 15 people at a shrine.

The bloody attack in the southern city of Shiraz came as thousands of mourners paid tribute to Amini on Wednesday in her western hometown, 40 days after her death in police custody. President Ebrahim Raisi appeared to link the two tragedies on Thursday, declaring that “the intention of the enemy is to disrupt the country´s progress, and then these riots pave the ground for terrorist acts”. Raisi vowed “a severe response” over the mass killing at the Shah Cheragh mausoleum during evening prayers -- an attack that was claimed by the Sunni extremist group Islamic State.

Protests have gripped Iran since Amini, a 22-year-old of Kurdish origin, died on September 16, three days after her arrest in Tehran by the notorious morality police for allegedly breaching the Islamic dress code for women.

Meanwhile, Khamenei’s call for unity appeared to be directed at mostly government loyalists and not protesters whose nearly six-week-old movement is seen by authorities as a threat to national security.

Iranians have called for the death of Khamenei and an end to the Islamic Republic during the protests, which have become one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution, drawing many Iranians on to the streets.

Officials said they had arrested a gunman who carried out the attack at the Shah Cheragh shrine in the city of Shiraz. A senior official said the suspected attacker was in critical condition after being shot by police. “We have not been able to interrogate him yet,” said deputy provincial governor Easmail Mohebipour, quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.