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Iranian Security Opens Fire on People Celebrating World Cup Defeat

Part of a video circulated on the Internet, showing Iranian actors, including actresses without a veil.
Part of a video circulated on the Internet, showing Iranian actors, including actresses without a veil.
    London, Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Iranian Security Opens Fire on People Celebrating World Cup Defeat

Part of a video circulated on the Internet, showing Iranian actors, including actresses without a veil.
Part of a video circulated on the Internet, showing Iranian actors, including actresses without a veil.

A human rights organization confirmed that at least one person was killed in the renewed Iranian protests, early on Wednesday, as Iranians took to the streets to celebrate the defeat of the their national football team in front of the United States.

Several Iranian cities witnessed protests to celebrate the exit of the Iranian national team from the World Cup.

Reports noted that the Iranian national team players were subjected to pressure from officers in the Revolutionary Guard after their first match against England, which they lost by six goals. The Iranian team tried to restore some of its balance in the match with Wales, winning 2-0, before being defeated by the US and eliminated from the world tournament.

After the defeat of the team, which some Iranians called the “national team of the Islamic Republic”, residents in north and west Tehran chanted slogans against the regime, while numerous videos on social networks showed the celebrations in roads and residential neighborhoods.

The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights confirmed the killing of Mahran Sammak, 27, during a festive gathering in the port of Anzali in the north of the country, noting that he was wounded in the head after security forces opened fire on the demonstrators. Reports said he was hit while driving his car.

Meanwhile, documents obtained by hackers from an agency affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard revealed that 84 percent of Iranians believe that the protests were the way out of the current situation.

The Black Reward group sent a number of secret letters, statements and recordings obtained from Fars agency.

One of the documents refers to a confidential news brief prepared by the agency for the commander of the Guard, Hossein Salami, and contains internal news, official statements and figures, including statistics on the protests.

The report says that 84 percent of Iranians believe that the protests are the way out of the current situation, and 56 percent believe that the demonstrations should continue. Fifty-one percent of Iranians demand “the freedom of the veil.”

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Japan's Top Diplomat in China to Address 'Challenges'

Japanese foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya (pictured) met with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Christmas in Beijing .Toshifumi KITAMURA / AFP
Japanese foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya (pictured) met with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Christmas in Beijing .Toshifumi KITAMURA / AFP
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Japan's Top Diplomat in China to Address 'Challenges'

Japanese foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya (pictured) met with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Christmas in Beijing .Toshifumi KITAMURA / AFP
Japanese foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya (pictured) met with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Christmas in Beijing .Toshifumi KITAMURA / AFP

Japanese foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya met counterpart Wang Yi and other top officials in Beijing on Wednesday, with the two sides agreeing to try to increase cooperation despite acknowledging challenges, reports said.
The visit is Iwaya's first to China since becoming Japan's top diplomat earlier this year, AFP said.
China and Japan are key trading partners, but increased friction over disputed territories and military spending has frayed ties in recent years.
Iwaya met with Wang at Beijing's opulent Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, footage from state broadcaster CCTV showed.
He told Wang Tokyo would try to "reduce challenges and matters of concern while increasing cooperation and collaboration", Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.
Earlier, Iwaya met Chinese Premier Li Qiang and agreed to work for a "constructive and stable" relationship, Kyodo said.
Tensions between the two sides flared again last year over Japan's decision to begin releasing into the Pacific Ocean some of the 540 Olympic swimming pools' worth of reactor cooling water amassed since the 2011 tsunami that led to the Fukushima nuclear disaster -- an operation the UN atomic agency deemed safe.
China branded the move "selfish" and banned all Japanese seafood imports, but in September said it would "gradually resume" the trade.

China imported more than $500 million worth of seafood from Japan in 2022, according to customs data.
Iwaya told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday that "China represents one of the most important bilateral relationships for us", despite "challenges".
"Both countries possess the heavy responsibilities for the peace and stability of our region and the international community," he added.
China's foreign ministry said Beijing sought to "strengthen dialogue and communication" in order to "properly manage differences" with Japan.
Beijing would "strive to build a constructive and stable China-Japan relationship that meets the requirements of the new era", spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
Long-standing tensions
Japan's brutal occupation of parts of China before and during World War II also remains a sore point, with Beijing accusing Tokyo of failing to atone for its past.
Visits by Japanese officials to the Yasukuni shrine that honors war dead -- including convicted war criminals -- regularly prompt anger from Beijing.
Beijing's more assertive presence around disputed territories in the region, meanwhile, has sparked Tokyo's ire, leading it to boost security ties with key ally the United States and other countries.
In August, a Chinese military aircraft staged the first confirmed incursion by China into Japanese airspace, followed weeks later by a Japanese warship sailing through the Taiwan Strait for the first time.
Beijing's rare test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean in late September also drew strong protests from Tokyo, which said it had not been given advance notice.
China also in August formally indicted a Japanese man held since last year on espionage charges.
The man, an employee of the Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas, was held in March last year and placed under formal arrest in October.