Mahsa Amini was not killed, she passed away, claimed Iran’s deputy foreign minister for Political Affairs Ali Bagheri on Thursday, blaming western media for creating a “baseless and fallacious” atmosphere. Speaking to ANI, he slammed western countries for their response to the protests triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in Iran.
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“Mahsa Amini was not killed, she passed away. We have seen the atmosphere created by some western media with regard to the development in Iran. This atmosphere is baseless and fallacious. We are seeing the rights of the Iranian nation are violated by these western powers,” he claimed.
“The western powers don’t talk about the people of Afghanistan, Palestine or Yemen. They don’t denounce or condemn these actions. Who are the real killers of these people?” Bagheri further asked.
Mass protests have been sweeping Iran since mid-September this year, following Amini’s death under suspicious circumstances in custody of the country’s infamous morality police. Even as the regime has attempted to quell the revolt with an iron hand, killing hundreds and detaining thousands, the protests refuse to die down.
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The deputy foreign minister was in India as part of political consultations between the two countries and met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday to discuss bilateral cooperation and regional issues.
“Yesterday I held a very constructive meeting with minister Jaishankar. In that meeting, we discussed the most important bilateral relations issues. Both sides stressed that in the era ahead, we need to strengthen our cooperation and consultations in order to promote our bilateral relations and continue our engagement with each other,” he told ANI.
He also addressed Iran’s past role as India’s oil supplier and said Iran has been always been prepared to supply energy to other countries, particularly India. “
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Slamming western countries for imposing sanctions on three major oil suppliers- Iran, Russia, and Venezuela, he said that these were “destabilising the energy security of the world”.
Speaking about the Chabahar Port project, he said, “one of the main areas of my talks with the Indian side was to promote our cooperation with India on Chabahar and accelerate the completion of the project Chabahar. We have so far reached good progress. But it still requires the intensification of our efforts and cooperation to finalize this project.”
