Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Iran Focusing on Minorities Following Protests, Experts Say

Mehdi Jedinia

   Days of widespread anti-government protests and violence in Iran have
   renewed debate over the status of minorities in the country, with some
   experts warning that Iranian authorities are blaming minority groups
   for the unrest in a bid to justify further clamping down on them.

   The nationwide protests in Iran erupted late last week because of
   frustration over an abrupt increase in gas prices by the government.

   Watchdog group Amnesty International reported Tuesday that at least 100
   protesters had been killed by security forces and more than 1,000
   people had been arrested.

   The Iranian government has claimed victory over the protests, with some
   officials calling it an enemy plot led by the United States with the
   help of opposition groups belonging to minority groups, such as the
   Kurds in the northwest and Ahwazi Arabs in the southwest.

   Kamran Matin, a Britain-based Iran researcher and scholar at Sussex
   University, told VOA that Iranian officials are publicly accusing
   elements among the Kurdish opposition with working as agents for the
   U.S. and Israel. The campaign, he said, is an effort to mobilize
   Iranian nationalists and those loyal to the regime.

   "In the current conjuncture, it is likely that Iranian regime unleashes
   its most brutal suppression against the Kurdish people as a means to
   intimidate the rest of Iran into acquiescence," Matin said, adding the
   government previously has continued to blame the minority in an effort
   to delegitimize popular movements.

   On Friday, state-run media outlets reported thousands of pro-government
   demonstrators were on the streets of major Iranian cities, including
   Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, Karaj, Kerman and Zahedan. The pro-government
   demonstrators, the state media said, chanted slogans against "the
   rioters and enemies who masterminded the unrest."

   Tehran's interim Friday Prayers leader, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, told
   the demonstrators that "subversive elements" backed by the U.S. and
   Saudi Arabia were to blame for the unrest.

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