Von der Leyen condemns violent crackdown on Iranian protesters 

The anti-government demonstrations continued on Saturday, amid stories of overwhelmed hospitals and an enchantment by the Iranian army to residents asking them to foil “enemy plots.” 

In keeping with the group Human Rights Activists in Iran, not less than 65 folks had been killed as of Friday, 2,311 people had been arrested, and protests had been recorded at 512 places in 180 cities. Time journal reported Friday that greater than 200 folks have died within the protests. 

A Western diplomat advised POLITICO that stories of a better dying toll than what has presently been reported, citing NGOs, had been “credible.” A spokesperson for the exiled opposition group NCRI mentioned that based mostly on preliminary assessments of the variety of killed in smaller Iranian cities, it was doubtless that the dying toll was considerably increased than may very well be formally confirmed.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola Saturday night known as for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be designated as a terrorist group and for extra sanctions to be imposed on the Iranian regime.

“These braving the streets, these political prisoners nonetheless being detained, want extra than simply phrases, Europe can act,” Metsola mentioned in a submit on X. “As one step: by designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group and by urgently additional extending EU sanctions to all these people propping up the regime by way of repression, violence and homicide.”

Metsola already had backed the protesters on Thursday — incomes a rebuke from the Iranian Mission to the EU — and the European Union’s prime diplomat Kaja Kallas known as any violence towards protesters “unacceptable.” Different MEPs echoed Metsola’s remarks, together with German Inexperienced Hannah Neumann, who chairs the Parliament’s delegation for relations with Tehran. She described the protests as a “breaking level” for Iran.