International Desk (EFE).- The European Union and some of its member countries, as well as the United Nations, condemned on Friday the blocking of internet and telephone services in Iran after 13 days of protests over the country’s economic and political situation.
Without social media, messaging applications, or websites, information on the protests, which have been ongoing since Dec. 28 in dozens of cities across the country is coming in slowly.
Amid the scarce contact, Iran Human Rights, an NGO based in Oslo, Norway, reported 51 deaths in the 13 days of protests.
The BBC’s Farsi service sent brief videos showing massive rallies on Thursday, with a multitude walking through Iranian streets.
In the videos, protesters are honking their car horns and burning a large poster with photos of assassinated Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders.
Europe and UN condemn the repression
Roberta Metsola, the President of the European Parliament, denounced restrictions on internet access after being criticized by the Iranian Embassy in Belgium, which labeled Metsola a “hypocrite” for supporting Iranian protesters while being lax about the war in Gaza.
“Must be nice to be able to tweet from Europe and be able to use the Internet freely to publicly disagree with leaders, without being arrested, beaten or having the country’s telecommunications disabled. That’s the sort of thing people in Iran’s streets are asking for…” Metsola wrote on her X account on Friday.
The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, Kaja Kallas, also spoke out and called the repression of “peaceful demonstrators” by the Iranian authorities “unacceptable.”
“Shutting down the internet while violently suppressing protests exposes a regime afraid of its own people,” Kallas wrote on her BlueSky account.
In a joint statement, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer strongly condemned the murder of protesters in Iran and called for restraint from the authorities in Tehran.
“We are deeply concerned about reports of violence by Iranian security forces and strongly condemn the killing of protesters,” the three leaders said.
Iran responds to Trump
As of Friday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been the target of much of the protests anger, responded to United States President Donald Trump, who warned that Washington will come “to their rescue” if Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom.”
“If he is capable, Trump should focus on governing his own country; the US faces numerous internal problems,” Khamenei said.
He also stated that Trump’s hands are “stained with the blood of over 1,000 Iranians who died in the American-Israeli aggression” of Jun. 2025, known as the “12-Day War.”
Meanwhile, Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah of Iran, deposed after the 1979 Revolution,, encouraged Iranian citizens to continue protesting on Friday. He asked Donald Trump to be “prepared” to “intervene” in Iran and “help” its people.
“The people will be on the streets again in an hour. I am asking you to help. You have proven and I know you are a man of peace and a man of your word. Please be prepared to intervene to help the people of Iran,” he wrote on X. EFE
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