Iranian human rights group Hrana said at least 34 protestors and two state security officers had been killed by Tuesday, with at least 2,000 protestors arrested. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday appealed to security forces not to target protestors.
Hours after Wadephul’s appeal, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola also backed the protestors. “We know the change is underway,” she said. “The people of Iran are not protesting. They are crying out. Europe hears them, the world hears them, and they will only get louder.”
“To the people of Iran, your pride and dignity as a people determined to build a great free nation will inspire generations in Iran and around the world,” she added.
Conservative German MP Roderich Kiesewetter called for tougher action, urging EU officials to expand sanctions on Iran’s clerical regime and to list the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard state security force as a terrorist organization.
“The time for diplomatic restraint toward the terrorist mullahs must be over,” Kiesewetter told POLITICO. “We now have to move from talk to decisive action and speak the language the regime understands: toughness and isolation.”
French media reported on Thursday that Iranian officials have begun seeking French visas for their families.