Tehran, Iran – Mass protests call for leaders to resign

Tehran, Iran – Mass protests call for leaders to resign ‘Our enemy is right here,’ chanted demonstrators as they took to the streets of Tehran. At the same time, the UK ambassador denied taking part in the protests and decried his arrest, saying it was illegal. Protests got underway across Iran on Sunday for the second day in a row following revelations that the fatal crash of a Ukrainian passenger jet was caused by an Iranian surface-to-air missile. Riot police and soldiers were deployed in large numbers around the capital Tehran, especially key sites like Vali-e Asr Square and university campuses. It appeared that much of the nationalist sentiment that the government had hoped to capitalize on followingthe assassination of General Qassem Soleimani by US forces in Iraq had begun to evaporate, particularly as the Revolutionary Guards did not admit their role in the tragedy until Canada, the US , and the UK announced they had evidence the jet was downed by a missile.

01:19 - “They are lying that our enemy is America, our enemy is right here,” chanted protesters outside a university in the capital. Demonstators are calling on the country’s leaders to resign. On Saturday, a group of protesters were hit with tear gas by the police after saying “death to the dictator”, referring to the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. UK ambassador denies protest participation. All 176 passengers and crew lost their lives after Ukrainian Airlines flight 752 was shot down shortly after takeoff on Wednesday. 82 people on board were Iranian.

01:54 - Initially, the government had claimed that a technical fault had caused the crash, until it emerged that it had been shot down after it flew close to a sensitive military site, where personnel say they mistook it for a US weapon. Just four hours earlier, Iran had launched airstrikes against US targets in Iraq. On Twitter, US President Donald Trump called on Iranian security services not to react violently to protests, referencing the hundreds of demonstrators who died in anti-government actions in the fall. At the same time, the hardline Basij militia staged its own demonstration outside the UK Embassy in Tehran. The ambassador has been summoned by the Iranian Foreign Ministry for allegedly taking part in an anti-government demonstration on Saturday.

02:39 - Ambassador Rob Macaire has denied taking part in the protest, saying he was told the event would be a vigil for the victims of the plane crash. He said he left after five minutes. He was arrested and then released later on Saturday. “Arresting diplomats is of course illegal, in all countries,” he wrote on Twitter. Germany’s Foreign Office also condemned the arrest, calling it “a completely unacceptable violation of international law. We strongly condemn this action.” .