Portugal’s government has decided to temporarily close its embassy in Iran, following mass demonstrations against the regime, mass killings of citizens and generally alarming rhetoric.
A press release issued today says: “The ministry of foreign affairs informs that yesterday, January 14, it was decided to temporarily close the Portuguese embassy in Iran (…) all Portuguese nationals in that country have been contacted, with eight nationals having already left Iranian territory.”
The statement adds that “some citizens” are in the process of leaving, without giving further details “for security reasons”, while 10 nationals, “seven of whom have dual Portuguese and Iranian nationality, wanted to remain in the country.”
The Portuguese government has already advised against “any and all travel to Iran, as already announced on the Portuguese Communities Portal,” given the “context of tension and the situation of latent armed conflict in the region, which results in significant security risks.”
Iran has been rocked by a new wave of protests since December 28, which began in Tehran by traders and economic sectors affected by the collapse of the rial, the Iranian currency, and high inflation, and then spread to more than 100 cities across the country.
Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) has raised the death toll in the protests that raged for more than two weeks to 3,428 – warning that these are cases it has been able to verify and that the actual number is likely to be higher.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened Iranian authorities with military intervention, urged protesters to continue their protests.
But the violence with which these protests have been met – the summary shootings of people just because they were in the street (some apparently trying to ‘run an errand’) – has seemingly brought them to a halt, or at least a pause.
The Iranian regime has threatened to carry out a pre-emptive strike – suggesting Israel and the United States orchestrated these protests.
The United Nations Security Council is meeting today in an emergency session for “a briefing on the situation in Iran” at the request of the United States, announced the spokesperson for the Council presidency, currently held by Somalia.
The meeting of the 15-country group is scheduled for 3 p.m. (10pm in Lisbon), according to a statement from Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for UN Leader António Guterres.
Dujarric reiterated at a press conference yesterday that the UN “is extremely concerned” about “the images emerging of protesters killed by violence during the protests.”
Unconfirmed reports put the number of dead into the ‘double figures’ of thousands.
Source material: LUSA
