Raisi didn’t say who the enemies had been, though Tehran habitually accuses the US and Israel of performing in opposition to it.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has blamed a wave of poisonings of lots of of schoolgirls across the nation on Tehran’s enemies.
The so-far unexplained poison assaults at greater than 30 faculties in no less than 4 cities began in November in Iran’s Shia Muslim holy metropolis of Qom, prompting some mother and father to take their kids out of college.
Iran’s well being minister mentioned on Tuesday that lots of of ladies in several faculties have been affected and a few politicians have prompt they might have been focused by spiritual teams opposed to women’ training.
Raisi, talking to a crowd in southern Iran on Friday in a speech carried reside on state tv, blamed the poisoning on Iran’s enemies.
“It is a safety challenge to trigger chaos within the nation whereby the enemy seeks to instil concern and insecurity amongst mother and father and college students,” he mentioned.
He didn’t say who these enemies had been, though Iranian leaders habitually accuse the USA and Israel, amongst others, of performing in opposition to it.
Individually, a senior Iranian official mentioned a gasoline tanker discovered subsequent to a college in a Tehran suburb and which had additionally been noticed in two different cities was most likely concerned within the poisonings.
Authorities seized the tanker and arrested its driver, mentioned Reza Karimi Saleh, the deputy governor of the Pardis suburb.
Saleh is the primary authorities official to report an arrest in reference to the wave of poisonings.
He mentioned the identical tanker had additionally been to Qom and Borujerd, in Lorestan Province in western Iran, the place college students have additionally suffered from poisoning. He didn’t elaborate.
“Guards at a parking zone the place the gasoline tanker was parked additionally suffered from poisoning,” Saleh mentioned, referring to the Pardis website.
Requires investigation
In Geneva, the United Nations human rights workplace on Friday known as for a clear investigation into the assaults.
“We’re very involved about these allegations that ladies are being intentionally focused below what seem like mysterious circumstances,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights, instructed a briefing.
She mentioned the findings of a authorities investigation ought to be made public and the perpetrators delivered to justice.
Becoming a member of worldwide calls, German international minister Annalena Baerbock mentioned the studies had been stunning and should be investigated absolutely.
“Ladies should have the ability to go to highschool with out concern,” Baerbock mentioned on Twitter. “That is nothing lower than their human proper. All circumstances should be absolutely investigated.”
The US State Division spokesperson had on Wednesday known as on Iran to analyze the circumstances of poisoning in faculties.
Some Iranian politicians have prompt the schoolgirls may have been focused by spiritual teams opposed to women’ training.
Social media posts are replete with pictures and movies of hospitalised ladies. Some mentioned they had been nauseous and suffered coronary heart palpitations. Others complained of complications or coronary heart palpitations. The posts couldn’t be verified.
Schoolgirls have additionally taken half within the anti-government protests triggered by the loss of life in custody of an Iranian-Kurdish woman last September. They’ve eliminated their obligatory hijabs in school rooms, torn up footage of Supreme Chief Ali Hosseini Khamenei and known as for his loss of life.
In a single on-line video final yr, schoolgirls are seen waving their headscarves within the air and heckling a member of Iran’s paramilitary Basij drive.
