Parliamentary Member: Many Killed in Mahshahr Marshes
A member of the Parliament’s Presidium has stated that many people were killed in the Mahshahr marshes because they intended to damage the country’s main energy transmission lines. According to the President’s Chief of Staff: “Armed individuals were shooting at security forces and people”.
Amirhassan Qazi-Zadeh Hashemi, a member of the Presidium of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, while justifying the killing of protesting individuals who were executed by security forces in the marshes on the outskirts of Mahshahr, said: “Many people have been killed in Mahshahr; we know exactly who they were, where they got weapons from, they wanted to damage the country’s main energy transmission lines, so what should the person responsible for the security of those lines have done?”
The member of the Presidium of the Islamic Consultative Assembly defended the government’s performance in directly shooting at people in response to criticism of the harsh treatment of security forces against protesters over gasoline price increases.
According to ISNA news agency, Qazi-Zadeh Hashemi, at a ceremony commemorating Student Day at the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources of Tehran University, in defense of the security forces’ performance in brutally suppressing protesters against gasoline price increases, said: “A protest occurred, but some individuals carried out anti-security activities”.
He added: “In this process, innocent people may have been harmed, and the Islamic government has a duty to compensate for that, pay blood money, and take care of their families”.
Nevertheless, Qazi-Zadeh Hashemi emphasized: “Institutions that should have prevented this, such as the National Security Council, performed very poorly”.
Legal Basis of the “Economic Council”
In response to a student who criticized the unconstitutional nature of the “Economic Council of the Three Branches’ Leaders,” Qazi-Zadeh Hashemi said: “This institution is not unconstitutional; according to our Constitution, determining the limits and conditions of extraordinary circumstances and final approval are the responsibility of the leadership. The President has stated for two years in public speeches and correspondence that the country’s conditions are special and has sought greater powers, and has complained that he does not have sufficient authority to run the country”.
He clarified that the Revolutionary Leader has granted this authority to the heads of the three branches.
This Iranian parliamentary member confirmed that three urgent bills for questioning the President and impeaching two ministers were prepared in the parliamentary session, but with a letter the Leader sent to representatives, he asked them to set aside the impeachment and follow the decisions of the Supreme National Security Council.
“Armed Individuals Shooting at Security Forces and People”
Mahmoud Vaezi, the Chief of Staff of the Islamic Republic’s President, also claimed regarding the killing of people in the Mahshahr marshes: “Based on images that exist from these incidents, armed individuals were shooting at security forces and people, which is very strange”.
According to ISNA news agency, Hassan Rouhani’s Chief of Staff said on Wednesday (December 11) in the margin of the cabinet meeting in front of journalists: “In Mahshahr and Assaluyeh, we witnessed that these people had entrenched themselves and were armed, which was a strange matter; some of the deaths were also caused by these individuals”.
Vaezi told journalists: “Many countries, including the United States, the Zionist regime, and some reactionary countries in the region and some European countries, had fully prepared for Iran’s November events”.
On behalf of Hassan Rouhani’s government, he “thanked all security and police agencies and the institutions of the Revolutionary Guards and Basij for conducting very good operations in a short period of time”.
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting previously aired a report titled “Reflection on the Project of Creating Deaths in Recent Events in Hostile Media.” This report called the protesters “rioters” and “villains” and reported on armed clashes between security forces and protesters and even shooting at them in the Mahshahr marshes.
This is while based on eyewitness accounts and videos published on social networks, protesting people initially closed the road leading to the petrochemical complex. Then, following an attack by military forces, they took refuge in the marsh where people were shot inside the marsh.
Source: DW
