Iran allows calls abroad, messages, internet restricted

Iran eased some restrictions on its people and, for the first time in days, allowed them to make phone calls abroad via their mobile phones on Tuesday. It did not ease restrictions on the internet or allow texting services to be restored as the toll from days of bloody protests against the state rose to at least 646 people killed.

Although Iranians were able to call abroad, people outside the country could not call them, several people in the capital told The Associated Press. The witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said SMS text messaging still was down and internet users inside Iran could not access anything abroad, although there were local connections to Government-approved websites. It was unclear if restrictions would ease further after authorities cut off all communications inside the country and to the outside world late Thursday.

UN official calls for an end to violence

The United Nations human rights chief is calling on Iranian authorities to immediately halt violence and repression against peaceful protesters, citing reports of hundreds killed and thousands arrested in a wave of demonstrations in recent weeks. “The killing of peaceful demonstrators must stop, and the labelling of protesters as terrorists to justify violence against them is unacceptable,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement Tuesday.

Alluding to a wave of protests in Iran in 2022, Türk said demonstrators have sought “fundamental changes” to governance in the country, “and once again, the authorities’ reaction is to inflict brutal force to repress legitimate demands for change.” “This cycle of horrific violence cannot continue,” he added.

It was “extremely worrying” to hear some public statements from judicial officials mentioning the prospect of the use of the death penalty against protesters through expedited judicial proceedings, Türk said. “Iranians have the right to demonstrate peacefully. Their grievances need to be heard and addressed, and not instrumentalised by anyone,” Türk said.

Finland summons  Iranian ambassador

Finland’s foreign minister said she is summoning the Iranian ambassador after authorities in Tehran restricted internet access. “Iran’s regime has shut down the internet to be able to kill and oppress in silence,” Elina Valtonen wrote in a social media post Tuesday, adding, “This will not be tolerated. We stand with the people of Iran — women and men alike.”

Finland is “exploring measures to help restore freedom to the Iranian people” together with the European Union, Valtonen said. Separately, Finnish police said they believe at least two people entered the courtyard of the Iranian embassy in Helsinki without permission on Monday afternoon and tore down the Iranian flag. The embassy’s outer wall was daubed with paint.

Forces arrested terrorist groups: Iran

Iranian security forces arrested what a state television report described as terrorist groups linked to Israel in the southeastern city of Zahedan. The report, without providing additional details, said the group entered through Iran’s eastern borders and carried US-made guns and explosives that the group had planned to use in assassinations and acts of sabotage. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the allegations.

Malala Yousafzai expresses support

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai expressed her support for the growing protest movement roiling Iran, hailing people who have “long warned about this repression, at great personal risk.” “The protests in Iran cannot be separated from the long-standing, state-imposed restrictions on girls’ and women’s autonomy, in all aspects of public life, including education.

Iranian girls, like girls everywhere, demand a life with dignity,” Yousafzai wrote on X. “(Iran’s) future must be driven by the Iranian people, and include the leadership of Iranian women and girls — not external forces or oppressive regimes,” she added. Yousafzai was awarded the peace prize in 2014 at the age of 17 for her fight for girls’ education in her home country, Pakistan. She is the youngest Nobel laureate.

France has reconfigured its Tehran embassy

The French Foreign Ministry said it has “reconfigured” its embassy in Tehran after reports that the facility’s nonessential staff left Iran earlier this week. The embassy’s nonessential staff left the country Sunday and Monday, French news agency Agence France-Presse reported. The ambassador remained on site, and the embassy continued to function, the ministry said late Monday night.

Trump announced Monday that countries doing business with Iran will face 25 per cent tariffs from the United States. Trump announced the tariffs in a social media posting, saying they would be “effective immediately.”

Trump said Sunday that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the Government continues to arrest protesters.  “I think they’re tired of being beaten up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

Iran, through the country’s parliamentary speaker, warned Sunday that the US military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if Washington uses force to protect demonstrators.  More than 10,700 people have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the latest death toll early Tuesday. It relies on supporters in Iran cross-checking information. It said 512 of the dead were protesters and 134 were security force members.

With the internet down in Iran, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll.