Iranian authorities have ordered an investigation into the fatal stabbing of a university student during a robbery, state media reported on Saturday, as the incident sparked protests at Tehran University.
Main gate of Tehran University © Mena Today
Iranian authorities have ordered an investigation into the fatal stabbing of a university student during a robbery, state media reported on Saturday, as the incident sparked protests at Tehran University.
Facing public anger over high inflation and a tumbling currency, and fearing renewed U.S. "maximum pressure" under Donald Trump, Iranian authorities are wary of a repeat of protests sparked in 2022 by the death in police custody of a young woman that snowballed into the boldest challenge to the country's clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.
Nineteen-year-old business student Amir Mohammad Khaleqi was stabbed to death by robbers on a motorcycle who stole his backpack late on Wednesday near a dormitory, according to media reports.
Dozens of students staged protests on Friday and Saturday demanding better security in university campus areas, according to videos posted on social media, some of which showed tense scenes of confrontation with plainclothes security men. Reuters could not verify the videos.
Iranian news websites said four students were detained and one suffered a broken nose in the unrest but Science Minister Hossein Simaei Sarraf said just one student was briefly detained, according to the semi-official news agency ISNA.
President Masoud Pezeshkian asked the science minister to "rapidly follow up the case and the ensuing protests so that protests do not spread beyond the university", ISNA reported.
Pezeshkian also said "rogue forces" should be prevented from entering Tehran University, in an apparent reference to hardline plainclothes security forces.
Reporting by Dubai newsroom
US embassies in Jerusalem, Baghdad and Amman issued security alerts Saturday urging American citizens to exercise "heightened vigilance," as tensions flare between Iran and the United States. Americans were also told to "consider departing, or be prepared to depart should there be escalation."
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Saturday it had received reports of two maritime incidents off Oman, including one in which a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile.
Britain has asked Cyprus to extradite a dual British-Azerbaijani national suspected of spying on a British air base on the Mediterranean island and passing his findings to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, London police said on Friday.
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