Thursday was another action-packed day for Iran, with protesters across the country out in solidarity with Kurdish cities, and UN Human Rights Council’s rapprochement of the Islamic Republic.
Following calls for nationwide protests on Thursday in support of the residents of Kurdish-majority areas, people in many cities held protests Thursday evening to show their solidarity.
People in several neighborhoods in the capital Tehran and several other cities such as Esfahan, Karaj, Oroumiyeh, Kermanshah and Hamedan held gatherings and chanted slogans against the Islamic Republic.
Kurdish-majority cities have been scenes of the regime’s brutal crackdown since at least last week. Thursday was also the day for funeral services and mourning ceremonies for dozens of people killed in the past few days.
Videos are slow to surface on social media due to restrictions on Internet access, but social media is full of pictures of bullet casings used against the people by security forces.
Merchants and storekeepers in dozens of Iranian cities also closed their doors Thursday and workers stopped work at some factories. Reports say business owners in the cities of Mashhad, Semirom, Naqadeh, and tens of Kurdish cities joined the nationwide strikes on Thursday.
The protests came as the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution against the Islamic Republic while China tried but failed to stop a motion before the council. The last-minute Chinese amendment to stop Iran’s rights violations was rejected with 25 against, six in favor and 15 abstentions.
The UN Human Rights Council voted to launch an independent investigation into Iran's deadly repression of protests, that has killed around 400 civilians.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the resolution, and said, "The fact-finding mission established today will help ensure that those engaged in the ongoing violent suppression of Iranian people are identified and their actions documented."
Also on Thursday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Chief Commander Hossein Salami warned the Islamic Republic's “enemies” that his forces are very dangerous and adversaries should be careful.
The Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry also strongly condemned the UN Human Rights Council’s "historic mistake" of establishing a fact-finding mission to probe, saying it won't recognize the mission which "violates Iran sovereignty."
While the world is becoming more vocal against the government crackdown on dissent, a lot of regime insiders have also started expressing concerns over the killing of peaceful protesters.
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