Iran’s Khamenei Praises Basij Forces for Confronting ‘Riots’

A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the country's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the country's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Iran’s Khamenei Praises Basij Forces for Confronting ‘Riots’

A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the country's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the country's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Saturday Iran's Basij militia forces have sacrificed their lives in what he called riots, the wave of protests sparked by the death in custody of a young Iranian Kurdish woman in September. 

The protests that began after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran's morality police on Sept. 16 have turned into one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution. 

Challenging the regime’s legitimacy, protesters from all walks of life have burned pictures of Khamenei and called for the downfall of the republic. 

The Basij forces, affiliated with the country's Revolutionary Guards, have been at the forefront of the state crackdown on the unrest in the past weeks. 

"They have sacrificed their lives to protect people from rioters ... the presence of Basij shows that the revolution is alive," Khamenei said in a televised speech. 

Iran's clerical establishment has blamed the country's foreign enemies, particularly the United States, and their agents for the unrest. 

On Saturday, videos posted on social media showed renewed protests at several universities in the capital Tehran and the central city of Isfahan. Reuters could not verify the footage. 

Meanwhile, a group of 140 Iranian eye doctors issued a statement warning that birdshot and paintball bullets used by security forces were blinding many protesters in one or both eyes, according to the reformist news website Sobhema and social media postings. 

Amnesty International has said Iran's security forces have been using unlawful force, including live ammunition and birdshot, killing dozens of people. Iranian authorities have blamed some shootings on unidentified dissidents. 

The activist news agency HRANA said that as of Friday 448 protesters have been killed, including 63 children. It said 57 members of the security forces have also been killed, and an estimated 18,170 people arrested. 

Authorities have not provided a death toll for protesters, but a senior official on Thursday said 50 police had been killed in the unrest. 

Iran's hardline judiciary has sentenced at least six protesters to death and thousands have been indicted for their role in the unrest, according to officials. 

Football team 

After many Iranian fans on social media accused the national football team of siding with the violent state crackdown on the unrest, Khamenei applauded the squad for their win in their World Cup match against Wales on Friday. 

"Yesterday, Team Melli (the National Team) made our people happy. May God make them happy," said Khamenei. 

The team sang along to Iran's national anthem before Friday's match, unlike in their first match against England in the opening game earlier this week when they chose not to sing, in apparent support for protesters at home. 

Akram Khodabandehlou, captain of the national Iranian women’s taekwondo team, said in an Instagram post on Saturday that she was leaving the team after a 12-year run in the team. She said she was doing so for "respect for my people’s sad hearts in these difficult days". 



Putin Agreed to Let US, Europe Offer NATO-Style Security Protections for Ukraine, Trump Envoy Says

White House envoy Steve Witkoff arrives before a news conference with President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP)
White House envoy Steve Witkoff arrives before a news conference with President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP)
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Putin Agreed to Let US, Europe Offer NATO-Style Security Protections for Ukraine, Trump Envoy Says

White House envoy Steve Witkoff arrives before a news conference with President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP)
White House envoy Steve Witkoff arrives before a news conference with President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP)

Special US envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed at his summit with President Donald Trump to allow the US and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO’s collective defense mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the 3 1/2-year war.

"We were able to win the following concession: That the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO," he said on CNN's "State of the Union." He added that it "was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at a news conference in Brussels with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that "we welcome President Trump’s willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine. and the ‘Coalition of the willing’ -- including the European Union -- is ready to do its share."

Witkoff, offering some of the first details of what was discussed at Friday's summit in Alaska, said the two sides agreeing to "robust security guarantees that I would describe as game-changing." He added that Russia said that it would make a legislative commitment not to go after any additional territory in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy thanked the United States for recent signals that Washington is willing to support security guarantees for Ukraine, but said the details remained unclear.

"It is important that America agrees to work with Europe to provide security guarantees for Ukraine," he said, "But there are no details how it will work, and what America’s role will be, Europe’s role will be and what the EU can do, and this is our main task, we need security to work in practice like Article 5 of NATO, and we consider EU accession to be part of the security guarantees."

Witkoff defended Trump’s decision to abandon his push for Russian to agree to an immediate ceasefire, saying the president had pivoted toward a peace deal because so much progress was made.

"We covered almost all the other issues necessary for a peace deal," Witkoff said, without elaborating.

"We began to see some moderation in the way they’re thinking about getting to a final peace deal," he said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted there would be "additional consequences" as Trump warned before meeting with Putin, if they failed to reach a ceasefire. But Rubio noted that there wasn’t going to be any sort of deal on a truce reached when Ukraine wasn’t at the talks.

"Now, ultimately, if there isn’t a peace agreement, if there isn’t an end of this war, the president’s been clear, there are going to be consequences," Rubio said on ABC’s "This Week.But we’re trying to avoid that. And the way we’re trying to avoid those consequences is with an even better consequence, which is peace, the end of hostilities."

Rubio, who is also Trump's national security adviser, said he did not believe issuing new sanctions on Russia would force Putin to accept a ceasefire, noting that the latter isn’t off the table but that "the best way to end this conflict is through a full peace deal."

"The minute you issue new sanctions, your ability to get them to the table, our ability to get them to table will be severely diminished," Rubio said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

He also said "we’re not at the precipice of a peace agreement" and that getting there would not be easy and would take a lot of work.

"We made progress in the sense that we identified potential areas of agreement, but there remains some big areas of disagreement. So we’re still a long ways off," Rubio said.

Zelenskyy and Europeans leaders are scheduled to meet Monday with Trump at the White House. They heard from the president after his meeting with Putin.

"I think everybody agreed that we had made progress. Maybe not enough for a peace deal, but we are on the path for the first time," Witkoff said.

He added: "The fundamental issue, which is some sort of land swap, which is obviously ultimately in the control of the Ukrainians -- that could not have been discussed at this meeting" with Putin. "We intend to discuss it on Monday. Hopefully we have some clarity on it and hopefully that ends up in a peace deal very, very soon."