PARIS: Iran offered a muted warning on Tuesday for students who staged anti-government rallies, with the country’s leaders under pressure after a recent mass protest movement and threats of US military action over its nuclear programme.
University students kicked off a new semester over the weekend with gatherings in which they revived slogans from nationwide protests against the country’s clerical leadership that peaked in January and were met by a deadly crackdown.
On Monday, the third consecutive day of the campus protests, videos geolocated by AFP showed students at a university in Tehran burning the Iranian flag adopted by the Islamic republic after the 1979 revolution that toppled the monarchy.
Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani, giving the first official reaction to the rallies, said on Tuesday that while students had a right to protest, they must “understand the red lines”.
The flag, she added, was one “of these red lines that we must protect and not cross or deviate from, even at the height of anger”.
She said Iran’s students “have wounds in their hearts and have seen scenes that may upset and anger them; this anger is understandable”.
The initial wave of protests began in December, sparked by economic woes in the sanctions-hit country, but soon grew into nationwide demonstrations that crested on January 8 and 9, posing one of the largest challenges to Iran’s leaders in years.
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