Iran: Former MP Accuses Senior Officials of Ignoring Pleas to Stop Crackdown on Protests

 People protest against increased gas price, on a highway in Tehran, Iran November 16, 2019. (Reuters)
People protest against increased gas price, on a highway in Tehran, Iran November 16, 2019. (Reuters)
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Iran: Former MP Accuses Senior Officials of Ignoring Pleas to Stop Crackdown on Protests

 People protest against increased gas price, on a highway in Tehran, Iran November 16, 2019. (Reuters)
People protest against increased gas price, on a highway in Tehran, Iran November 16, 2019. (Reuters)

A video interview with former Iranian MP Mahmoud Sadeghi revived talks about the Iranian authorities’ crackdown on the popular protests that swept the county in 2019 over the hike of petrol prices.

The interview revealed details of a closed-door meeting between deputies in the former parliament and senior officials in the security services, including the Secretary-General of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani. Sadeghi said that the senior security officials have ignored calls to stop the killing of protesters.

Iran witnessed massive protests in mid-November 2019 in wake of the government’s sudden decision to raise gasoline prices by 300 percent.

The protests began in the outskirts of the oil city of Ahvaz, in the southwest of Iran, before spreading across the country, prompting the authorities to cut off internet service and use live ammunition to disperse the demonstrators.

Minister of Interior Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said in an interview last summer that about 230 people died in the protests, adding that some were killed by unlicensed weapons.

Sadeghi said that the security officials responded by “no” when he asked them during that meeting about whether the authorities found evidence on the role of Iranian opposition groups and parties in the protests and strikes.

“They definitely didn’t find anything; all of the protesters were civilians…,” the former MP told the interview, adding: “I told Mr. Shamkhani at the time: What would you do if the people did not withdraw? Would you kill them? Shamkhani replied: “We will strike.”

In the first official response to Sadeghi’s statements, the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for National Security hinted at prosecuting the former deputy, saying his account was “false” and “unrealistic.”

The new information revealed by Sadeghi come a month after Shamkhani made controversial remarks in an interview with the state ISNA news agency, blaming the administration of President Hassan Rouhani for “mismanagement” and “lack of coordination” in implementing the decision to raise the fuel prices.



Iran Says it Would Resume Nuclear Talks with US if Guaranteed No Further Attacks

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia June 23, 2025. Sputnik/Sergei Karpukhin/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia June 23, 2025. Sputnik/Sergei Karpukhin/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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Iran Says it Would Resume Nuclear Talks with US if Guaranteed No Further Attacks

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia June 23, 2025. Sputnik/Sergei Karpukhin/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia June 23, 2025. Sputnik/Sergei Karpukhin/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

Iran’s foreign minister said Saturday that his country would accept a resumption of nuclear talks with the US if there were assurances of no more attacks against it, state media reported.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a speech to Tehran-based foreign diplomats that Iran has always been ready and will be ready in the future for talks about its nuclear program, but, “assurance should be provided that in case of a resumption of talks, the trend will not lead to war.”

Referring to the 12-day Israeli bombardment of Iran's nuclear and military sites, and the US strike on June 22, Araghchi said that if the US and others wish to resume talks with Iran, "first of all, there should be a firm guarantee that such actions will not be repeated. The attack on Iran's nuclear facilities has made it more difficult and complicated to achieve a solution based on negotiations.”

Following the strikes, Iran suspended cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, which led to the departure of inspectors.

Araghchi said that under Iranian law, the country will answer the agency’s request for cooperation "case by case,” based on Iran’s interests. He also said any inspection by the agency should be done based on Iran's “security” concerns as well as the safety of the inspectors. “The risk of proliferation of radioactive ingredients and an explosion of ammunition that remains from the war in the attacked nuclear sites is serious,” he said.

"The risk of spreading radioactive materials and the risk of exploding leftover munitions ... are serious," he added.

"For us, IAEA inspectors approaching nuclear sites has both a security aspect ... and the safety of the inspectors themselves is a matter that must be examined."

He also reiterated Iran's position on the need to continue enriching uranium on its soil. US President Donald Trump has insisted that cannot happen.

Israel claims it acted because Tehran was within reach of a nuclear weapon. US intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency had assessed Iran last had an organized nuclear weapons program in 2003, though Tehran had been enriching uranium up to 60% — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in an interview published Monday said the US airstrikes so badly damaged his country’s nuclear facilities that Iranian authorities still have not been able to access them to survey the destruction.