Iran’s Revolutionary Guards arrest about 100 protest leaders

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have arrested about 100 leaders of the protests that erupted last week over gasoline price rises, Gholamhossein Esmaili, spokesman for Iran’s judiciary, said on Friday according to the official IRNA news agency.

“Approximately 100 leaders, heads and main figures of the recent unrest were identified and arrested in various parts of the country by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps,” Esmaili said.

The protests erupted across the sanctions-hit country on November 15, after the price of petrol was raised by as much as 200 percent.

Authorities said leaders of the protests in which police stations were attacked, petrol pumps torched and shops looted had been arrested.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards acknowledged on Friday that the demonstrations took place in 28 provinces and 100 cities on the first day. The Iranian media quoted the deputy commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards as saying: “We were able to stop the unrest within 48 hours.”

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is a statement said: “The United States stands with the people of Iran in their struggle against an oppressive regime that silences them while arresting and murdering protestors.”