Int’l Report Unveils Iranian Diplomats' Role in Distorting Image of Protesters

Hossein Abdullahian (IRNA) - Ali Akbar Velayati. (Khamenei's website)
Hossein Abdullahian (IRNA) - Ali Akbar Velayati. (Khamenei's website)
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Int’l Report Unveils Iranian Diplomats' Role in Distorting Image of Protesters

Hossein Abdullahian (IRNA) - Ali Akbar Velayati. (Khamenei's website)
Hossein Abdullahian (IRNA) - Ali Akbar Velayati. (Khamenei's website)

A report by Amnesty International has shed light on the Iranian diplomats' involvement in the cover-up of 1988 executions and the current crackdown on protests.

The executions were done based on a fatwa by Khomeini, the Supreme Leader at the time.

The Iranian authorities' refusal to acknowledge let alone ensure accountability for the 1988 prison massacres has perpetuated cycles of crimes under international law and cover-ups designed to extinguish any form of political opposition, said Amnesty International.

It noted the critical role played by Iranian diplomatic representatives in denying the massacres, spreading misinformation, and opposing an international investigation in the face of mounting credible evidence.

Over four decades later, current Iranian officials employ similar strategies to cover up and weaken international responses to crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations as they try to crush the ongoing nationwide protests, according to the organization.

The demonstrations were sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini for not abiding by the dress code.

“The authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran have maintained an iron grip on power for decades through the commission of horror after horror with absolute impunity. They continue to systematically conceal the fate and whereabouts of thousands of political dissidents they extrajudicially killed in the 1980s and dumped in unmarked graves. They hide or destroy mass gravesites, and harass and intimidate survivors and relatives,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Such crimes are not relics of the past. The anniversary arrives amid a horrific wave of bloodshed around the latest protests, as well as arbitrary executions and death sentences targeting protesters,” she added.

Between 1988 and 1990, Iranian diplomats around the world and government officials in Iran made similar and sometimes identical comments, dismissing reports of mass executions in 1988 as propaganda from opposition groups and claiming that the killings had occurred in the context of the armed incursion of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI).

Amnesty International has gathered evidence pointing to the involvement of various former diplomatic representatives and government officials in Iran in this cover-up, including the following individuals Ali Akbar Velayati (former Minister of Foreign Affairs) and Mohammad Hossein Lavasani and Manouchehr Mottaki (Deputy Foreign Ministers).

The list also includes Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, Iran’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, Sirous Nasseri, Iran’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Mohammad Ali Mousavi, Iran’s Chargé d’Affaires in Ottawa, Canada, and Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh, Iran’s Chargé d’Affaires in London, and Raeisinia, First Secretary of Iran’s Embassy in Tokyo.

Current Iranian officials are resorting to similar tactics to discredit a new generation of protesters and dissidents as “rioters”, deny involvement in hundreds of unlawful killings, and resist calls for international investigations and accountability.

In the lead-up to a special session at the UN Human Rights Council in November 2022 on Iran’s lethal protest crackdown, Iranian officials in Geneva distributed lengthy briefings, which blamed the killings of protesters on “hired terrorists”, “suicides” or “accidents” or questioned the death of some victims.

In November 2022, Amir Saeed Iravani, Iran’s current Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, called on states to refrain from supporting a UN Security Council informal meeting on Iran’s lethal crackdown on protesters, which he described as a “mischievous disinformation campaign”.

Ignoring a vast body of evidence on the unlawful killing of hundreds of protesters and bystanders, including children, by Iran’s security forces, he claimed that “the right to free expression and peaceful assembly has been recognized and ensured by the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the enjoyment of our people of this right has always been supported by the Government.”

Eltahawy said: “For decades, Iran’s government and its diplomatic representatives around the world have orchestrated denial and misinformation campaigns to mislead the international community and rob those affected and society at large of the right to truth.”



Anti-war Demonstrators Protest the Arrival of an Israeli Cruise Ship on the Greek Island of Crete

 Pro-Palestinians protesters gather during the departure of a ship carrying Israeli tourists, background, in Agios Nikolaos port, on the island of Crete, Greece, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Antonis Zouridakis/Eurokinissi via AP)
Pro-Palestinians protesters gather during the departure of a ship carrying Israeli tourists, background, in Agios Nikolaos port, on the island of Crete, Greece, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Antonis Zouridakis/Eurokinissi via AP)
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Anti-war Demonstrators Protest the Arrival of an Israeli Cruise Ship on the Greek Island of Crete

 Pro-Palestinians protesters gather during the departure of a ship carrying Israeli tourists, background, in Agios Nikolaos port, on the island of Crete, Greece, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Antonis Zouridakis/Eurokinissi via AP)
Pro-Palestinians protesters gather during the departure of a ship carrying Israeli tourists, background, in Agios Nikolaos port, on the island of Crete, Greece, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Antonis Zouridakis/Eurokinissi via AP)

Demonstrators calling for an end to the war in Gaza protested the arrival of an Israeli cruise ship on another Greek island Tuesday – the third such protest on Greek islands in the last week.

Protesters on the southern Greek island of Crete unfurled a huge Palestinian flag at the port of Agios Nikolaos and shouted “Free, free Palestine” as the tourists on board the Crown Iris disembarked and left on buses for their tours of the island, according to images shown on local media outlets.

Riot police kept the crowd away from the pier where the cruise ship was docked, while scuffles broke out between demonstrators and police. Local media reported that officers used pepper spray at one point to keep the crowd back.

Four people were detained, local media said. Video showed police leading one man away, his arms cuffed behind his back, as he shouted “Free, free Palestine.”

Similar scenes unfolded the previous day when the Crown Iris docked in a port on the eastern Greek island of Rhodes, where clashes broke out between riot police and demonstrators calling for an end to the war in Gaza. There also, the cruise ship’s passengers disembarked for tours of the island, and no violence was reported.

Anti-war protesters on Greece’s Cycladic island of Syros were the first to hold a demonstration against the docking of the Crown Iris, on July 22. The crowd of about 150 people chanted slogans and carried banners that read “Stop the Genocide” and “No a/c in hell” — a reference to the conditions Palestinians face in the Gaza Strip.

On that occasion, the ship’s roughly 1,700 passengers didn't disembark and the ship left the island earlier than planned, with the company operating the trip, Israel’s Mano Cruise, saying it had “decided in light of the situation in the city of Syros to now sail to another tourist destination.”

Last week's incident had triggered a phone call by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar to Greek counterpart George Gerapetritis.

Greece is a popular tourist destination for Israelis on package tours and traveling independently, particularly in the summer months, and there are several flights per day between Tel Aviv and Athens, as well as from Israeli airports directly to Greek islands.