Iran: Tributes to repression victims and anti-government slogans reported in several cities

Slogans against the government rang out Tuesday during gatherings held in several Iranian cities to pay tribute to protesters killed during the bloody crackdown on January’s protest movement, according to videos verified by AFP.

In a video shared on social media and geolocated by AFP in Abadan (west), a crowd holds up flowers and portraits of a young man while shouting “death to Khamenei” (the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic) or “long live the Shah” in support of the monarchy that was overthrown in 1979.

Two other videos from the same city show people in panic fleeing as gunshots are heard — though it’s unclear whether they are live rounds — and in the other video, a gunman aiming at the crowd from atop an armored vehicle, though the type of weapon cannot be distinguished.

In the streets of Mashhad (in the north of the country), a crowd also chanted “one person killed, thousands behind them.”

Human rights organizations based abroad estimate that at least 7,000 people — mostly protesters — were killed during the crackdown on the protest movement that challenged the Iranian government at the beginning of January.

The authorities, reported 3,000 deaths, which they say were mostly members of security forces and bystanders killed by “terrorists” serving Israel and the United States' interests.

They held a religious ceremony Tuesday at the large Mosalla mosque in Tehran to mark the 40th day after these deaths, in accordance with the Shiite tradition of mourning.

There, a crowd waved Iranian flags and portraits of the victims, to the sound of nationalist songs and slogans such as “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”

Notably in attendance were First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref and General Esmail Qaani, head of the Qods Force, the external operations branch of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic.

“Those who supported the rioters and the terrorists are criminals and will have to bear the consequences,” Qaani reaffirmed, as quoted by the Tasnim news agency.

Iran and the U.S. concluded a second round of talks on Tuesday near Geneva in a context that remains extremely tense, after weeks of threats exchanged between the two sides.