Iranians Protest in Zahedan Despite Tight Security

Demonstrators protest following the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran, in Berlin, Germany (File photo: Reuters)
Demonstrators protest following the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran, in Berlin, Germany (File photo: Reuters)
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Iranians Protest in Zahedan Despite Tight Security

Demonstrators protest following the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran, in Berlin, Germany (File photo: Reuters)
Demonstrators protest following the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran, in Berlin, Germany (File photo: Reuters)

Thousands took to the streets in Zahedan Friday despite the checkpoints and roadblocks established by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces and police officers.

Videos from the march showed protesters carrying banners and chanting against the Iranian government.

The military forces designated checkpoints in different areas of Zahedan and outside the homes of Baloch citizens in anticipation of these protests.

Residents complained about the treatment of the military forces, as everyone was interrogated, searched, and forced to show their identity cards.

According to the Iran International website, military forces were also present at some schools, noting that they had been converted into what resembled military bases.

Iran has been witnessing massive protests for months, after the death of the young woman, Mahsa Amini, on September 16, 2022, at the hands of the "morality police."

Despite pressures and threats, anti-regime Friday protests continued for the fifteenth week in Zahedan.

According to the United Nations, Iran arrested at least 14,000 people during the protests.

The authorities executed four people for their role in the unrest and imposed death sentences on 18 people, sparking widespread international outrage.

The EU will impose new sanctions on 37 Iranian officials and organizations over the crackdown on protests but is still debating listing the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group, diplomats said Friday.

Foreign ministers from the bloc will agree to adopt the fourth package of sanctions against Tehran due to its repression of the demonstrators at a scheduled meeting on Monday in Brussels.

The EU imposed sanctions, including freezing assets and a visa ban on more than 60 Iranian officials and entities over the suppression of protests, including the morality police, IRGC commanders, and state media.

However, the EU is still discussing adding the IRGC to the blacklist of terrorist organizations despite calls from Germany and other member states to take this step.

For its part, Iran warned the EU against this move, and European officials fear that it could hinder attempts to revive the 2015 agreement on Tehran's nuclear program, mediated by Brussels.

"I think it's not a good idea because it prevents you from going ahead in other issues," a senior EU official said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry said that the EU foreign ministers are expected to agree to impose more sanctions targeting IRGC commanders at their meeting in Brussels on Monday.

Asked at a regular government news conference in Berlin whether sanctions could hamper diplomatic efforts to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, the spokesperson said: "The focus of our policy currently is increasing pressure on the Iranian regime."



Congo Rebels Face Some Resistance in Goma, More Peacekeepers Killed 

Residents look on as members of the M23 armed group walk through a street of the Keshero neighborhood in Goma, on January 27, 2025. (AFP)
Residents look on as members of the M23 armed group walk through a street of the Keshero neighborhood in Goma, on January 27, 2025. (AFP)
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Congo Rebels Face Some Resistance in Goma, More Peacekeepers Killed 

Residents look on as members of the M23 armed group walk through a street of the Keshero neighborhood in Goma, on January 27, 2025. (AFP)
Residents look on as members of the M23 armed group walk through a street of the Keshero neighborhood in Goma, on January 27, 2025. (AFP)

Gunfire rippled across east Congo's largest city Goma where Rwandan-backed M23 rebels still faced pockets of resistance from army and pro-government militias on Tuesday, while another four South African peacekeepers were killed.

The rebels marched into the lakeside city of two million people on Monday in the worst escalation since 2012 of a three-decade conflict rooted in the Rwandan genocide and control of natural resources.

Dozens of Democratic Republic of Congo troops had surrendered, but some soldiers and pro-government militiamen were holding out, residents and UN sources said.

People in several neighborhoods reported small arms fire and some loud explosions on Tuesday morning.

"I have heard the crackle of gunfire from midnight until now ... it is coming from near the airport," an elderly woman in Goma's northern Majengo neighborhood, close to the airport, told Reuters by phone.

The UN and global powers fear the conflict could spiral into a regional war akin to those of 1996-1997 and 1998-2003 that killed millions, mostly from hunger and disease.

Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance that includes the M23, has suggested the rebels' aim is to replace President Felix Tshisekedi and his government in the capital Kinshasa, more than 1,500 km west of Goma.

In the latest diplomatic efforts, South Africa said its President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame agreed in a phone call on the need for a ceasefire.

But on the ground four more South African peacekeepers in Congo were killed, South Africa's military said, bringing the number of its fatalities in the past week to 13.

Of the latest deaths, three were caught in crossfire between the Congolese army and the M23 on Monday, while another succumbed to wounds from fighting with the rebels, it said.

'POWDERKEG TOWN'

Willy Ngumbi, a bishop in Goma, said bombs had hit a house where priests were staying and the maternity ward of a Catholic hospital on Monday.

"The town is a powderkeg," he said by phone. "The youth are armed and the fighting is now taking place in the town."

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Monday it had treated 117 injured people, including 86 with bullet wounds, at a hospital in Goma that it supports.

Also on Monday, Congolese soldiers and Rwandan troops exchanged artillery fire near the border, with Rwanda's army reporting five people killed and 26 injured.

The fighting has sent thousands of people streaming out of Goma, which has been a vital regional hub for humanitarian aid for displaced people. Hundreds of thousands have fled fighting since the start of the year - on top of 3 million who were displaced in eastern Congo last year.

Goma is also a gateway for trade of tantalum and tin ores, used in phones and computers.

"The city is in real difficulty and if it hasn’t fallen overnight, it will in the coming days," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told Sud Radio. "Rwanda must put down its weapons, calm must return and dialogue needs to restart."

FAST OFFENSIVE

M23 is the latest in a string of ethnic Tutsi-led, Rwandan-backed insurgencies. Its fighters took up arms again in 2022, a decade after a previous insurgency that briefly captured Goma.

In recent weeks they made swift gains through North Kivu province, on the border with Rwanda, ignoring calls from world leaders to halt their offensive.

Rwanda has dismissed calls for troops to leave, saying its security is threatened and blaming Kinshasa for sabotaging peace efforts. UNexperts say Kigali has deployed 3,000-4,000 troops in eastern Congo to support the M23.

Congo's government has called on international powers to pressure Rwanda, potentially via sanctions, to end the M23 offensive.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Congo president Tshisekedi on Monday, the State Department said. "Secretary Rubio condemned the assault on Goma by the Rwanda-backed M23 and affirmed the United States’ respect for the sovereignty of the DRC," it said.

The UN Security Council was due to discuss the crisis again on Tuesday, diplomats said.

In Kinshasa on Tuesday, dozens of young men burned tires and chanted anti-Rwanda slogans.

Rwanda says ethnic Hutu militias, some with links to the extremists who murdered close to 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the 1994 genocide, threaten its security.