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Former political prisoner and rights activist Hossein Ronaghi said the crackdown in Iran amounted to a crime against humanity, accusing the authorities of systematically killing protesters and attempting to conceal the scale of the crackdown.
“What happened in Iran is a crime against humanity,” Ronaghi said, adding that protesters seeking “the right to life and freedom” were killed, wounded, blinded, or subjected to amputations. He said others had disappeared or remained in detention awaiting harsh sentences.
Ronaghi said internet shutdowns were a deliberate effort to hide the truth.
“The government, through ignorance, despotism, and a policy of survival at any cost, brought the country to this point and set it ablaze. The pain of this mourning will become a fire that will destroy the foundations of despotism,” he added.
US Senator Lindsey Graham said President Donald Trump would deliver on his promise to support Iranian people.
“When Donald Trump promises you something, he will deliver. To the Iranian people, President Trump has your back,” Graham said in an interview with Fox News.
“I hope he can find a deal to end the bloodshed in Iran, but Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism,” he added.
"I think regimes, including that one in Iran, have learned that when you start shooting people in the head with snipers, it's effective," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a congressional hearing on Wednesday, estimating the death toll from Iran's crackdown on protestors this month was "in the thousands."
"I mean, it works, and they've done it, and it's horrifying," he added. "That regime is probably weaker than it has ever been, and the core problem they face, unlike the protests you saw in the past on some other topics, is that they don't have a way to address the core complaints of the protesters, which is that their economy is in collapse."
"The protests may have ebbed, but they will spark up again in the future, because this regime, unless they are willing to change and/or leave, have no way of addressing the legitimate and consistent complaints of the people of Iran who deserve better," Rubio said.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Wednesday said there must be no impunity for those responsible for the crackdown in Iran and voiced support for new sanctions targeting those chiefly responsible.
"This repression has resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries and the arbitrary arrest of tens of thousands of people," Barrot said.
"It is essential to fight impunity for the perpetrators of this bloody repression," he added.
Egypt said on Wednesday it is seeking the release of four of its citizens detained by Iran after Tehran seized a tanker in the Persian Gulf last month on charges of carrying smuggled fuel.
Four Egyptian crew members are currently on board the vessel Reem alKhaleej at Iran’s Bandar Abbas port, Egypt’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Iran said last month it had seized a foreign oil tanker near the Iranian island of Qeshm carrying four million litres of smuggled fuel. It did not name the vessel or disclose its nationality, but said 16 foreign crew members had been detained on criminal charges.
