Global Figures Urge Support for Iran Protesters

Protesters looks at an image of Mahsa Amini during a candle light vigil in front of Iranian embassy in memory of victims of torture, sexual violence, and hangings, in Rome, Italy, 06 January 2023. (EPA)
Protesters looks at an image of Mahsa Amini during a candle light vigil in front of Iranian embassy in memory of victims of torture, sexual violence, and hangings, in Rome, Italy, 06 January 2023. (EPA)
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Global Figures Urge Support for Iran Protesters

Protesters looks at an image of Mahsa Amini during a candle light vigil in front of Iranian embassy in memory of victims of torture, sexual violence, and hangings, in Rome, Italy, 06 January 2023. (EPA)
Protesters looks at an image of Mahsa Amini during a candle light vigil in front of Iranian embassy in memory of victims of torture, sexual violence, and hangings, in Rome, Italy, 06 January 2023. (EPA)

Hundreds of global figures from Nobel laureates to actors have issued a joint plea urging "unstinting" support for Iranians protesting against their country's regime in defiance of a bloody crackdown.

Demonstrations erupted in September last year over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the country's dress code for women.

But protests rapidly expanded into a movement calling for the ousting of the theocratic regime that has ruled Iran since the fall of the shah in 1979.

A statement issued Wednesday by US-based rights group Freedom House said the protesters' "victory would mean deliverance from a regime that denies free elections, free speech, due process of law, and personal autonomy in matters as simple as the choice of clothing".

It was signed by some 480 global figures, Freedom House said, including Nobel-Prize-winning writer Svetlana Alexievich, former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, and actor Richard Gere.

The "end of the Islamic republic's system of misogyny would constitute a global landmark in the long march toward a world in which women are treated equally", the statement said, adding: "They (protesters) deserve unstinting support from freedom-loving people around the world."

Iranians have kept up acts of defiance in the face of a crackdown that has so far seen four men executed over the protests and at least 14,000 people arrested, according to the United Nations, while hundreds have been killed.

Iranian figures who signed the statement include some of the most prominent exiles backing the protest movement, such as US-based dissident Masih Alinejad, actor Golshifteh Farahani who lives in France, footballer Ali Karimi, and Reza Pahlavi, the son of the ousted shah.

The statement urged governments to sanction all Iranian officials involved in the repression, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei, and called for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to be proscribed as a terror group.

Officials from "democratic governments should receive leaders of the opposition, in publicly announced meetings", it added.

Freedom House president Michael Abramowitz said the statement "shows the remarkable unity of a broad coalition from around the world, across the political spectrum, and from all segments of society".

"The world stands with the Iranian people as they continue to risk their lives and well-being for their freedom."



Russian Defense Minister Visits North Korea to Talk with Military and Political Leaders

In this photo taken from a video released by the Russian Defense Ministry press service, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, left, is welcomed by North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol upon his arrival at Pyongyang International Airport outside Pyongyang, North Korea Friday, Nov.29, 2024. (Russian Defense Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from a video released by the Russian Defense Ministry press service, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, left, is welcomed by North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol upon his arrival at Pyongyang International Airport outside Pyongyang, North Korea Friday, Nov.29, 2024. (Russian Defense Press Service via AP)
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Russian Defense Minister Visits North Korea to Talk with Military and Political Leaders

In this photo taken from a video released by the Russian Defense Ministry press service, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, left, is welcomed by North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol upon his arrival at Pyongyang International Airport outside Pyongyang, North Korea Friday, Nov.29, 2024. (Russian Defense Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from a video released by the Russian Defense Ministry press service, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, left, is welcomed by North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol upon his arrival at Pyongyang International Airport outside Pyongyang, North Korea Friday, Nov.29, 2024. (Russian Defense Press Service via AP)

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in North Korea on Friday for talks with North Korean military and political leaders as the countries deepen their alignment over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The defense ministry in announcing the visit didn’t specify who Belousov would be meeting or the purpose of the talks. North Korean state media didn’t immediately confirm the visit.
Belousov, a former economist, replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in May after Russian President Vladimir Putin started a fifth term in power.
The visit came days after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met with a Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov in the South Korean capital of Seoul and called for the two countries to formulate countermeasures in response to North Korea’s dispatch of thousands of troops to Russia in support of its fight against Ukraine.
The United States and its allies have said North Korea has sent more than 10,000 soldiers to Russia in recent weeks and that some of those troops were engaging in combat.
North Korea has also been accused of supplying artillery systems, missiles and other military equipment to Russia that may help Russian President Vladmir Putin further extend an almost three-year war. There are also concerns in Seoul that North Korea in exchange for its troops and arms supplies could receive Russian technology transfers that could potentially advance the threat posed by leader Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons and missile program.
Yoon’s national security adviser, Shin Wonsik, said in a TV interview last week that Seoul assesses that Russia has provided air defense missile systems to North Korea in exchange for sending its troops.
Shin said Russia has also appeared to have given economic assistance to North Korea and various military technologies, including those needed for the North’s efforts to build a reliable space-based surveillance system. Shin didn’t say whether Russia has already transferred sensitive nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technologies to North Korea.
The Russian media report about Belousov’s visit came as South Korea scrambled fighter jets to repel six Russian and five Chinese warplanes that temporarily entered the country’s air defense identification zone around its eastern and southern seas, according to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The joint chiefs said the Russian and Chinese planes did not breach South Korea’s territorial airspace.