AFP: Iran on Thursday accused “foreigners” of having supported last months unrest involving ethnic Arabs from the southwestern province of Khuzestan and has said it has identified or arrested all the suspected ringleaders. “All the ones involved in the Khuzestan unrest (and) who provoked people in the early days of the unrest have been identified and the arrests are continuing,” Intelligence Minister Ali Yunessi was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA. AFP
TEHRAN – Iran on Thursday accused “foreigners” of having supported last months unrest involving ethnic Arabs from the southwestern province of Khuzestan and has said it has identified or arrested all the suspected ringleaders.
“All the ones involved in the Khuzestan unrest (and) who provoked people in the early days of the unrest have been identified and the arrests are continuing,” Intelligence Minister Ali Yunessi was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA.
“The main elements and the ones responsible for the unrest are Iranians but their supporters are foreigners,” Yunessi added, without elaborating on the allegation.
He added that “the main person responsible for the unrest was a member of the hypocrites”, the regimes term for the outlawed Iraq-based armed opposition group, the Peoples Mujahedeen.
According to official figures, the April 15-18 violence left five people dead. Judiciary officials have also spoken of hundreds of arrests.
It appeared to have been sparked by a forged letter, dating back seven years and attributed to then vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, calling for modifications to oil-rich Khuzestan’s ethnic composition.
Iran’s Islamic regime has already blamed foreigners and “counter-revolutionaries” for the ethnic tensions, but has not said which country it believed was involved.
The government has also admitted the province’s development was still hampered by the devastation it suffered during the 1980-1988 war with neighbouring Iraq.
