President apologises over crackdown as Iran marks 1979 Islamic Revolution

In a ceremony marking the revolution anniversary, Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian apologised to “all those affected” by the nationwide protests and bloody crackdown that followed it. Picture: AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis.

Iran has marked the 47th anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution as the country’s theocracy remains under pressure from US president Donald Trump and public anger over Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.

Iran is taking part in negotiations with the United States over its nuclear programme but it remains unclear if a deal will be reached.

Meanwhile, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has been unable for months to inspect and verify Iran’s nuclear stockpile.

In a ceremony marking the revolution anniversary, Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian apologised to “all those affected” by the nationwide protests and bloody crackdown that followed it, even as he denounced unspecified “Western propaganda” surrounding the protests.

Mr Pezeshkian said he knew the “great sorrow” felt by people in the protests and crackdown, without directly acknowledging the hand Iranian security forces had in the bloodshed.

“We are ashamed before the people, and we are obligated to assist all those who were harmed in these incidents,” Mr Pezeshkian said. “We are not seeking confrontation with the people.” Mr Pezeshkian also insisted that his nation was “not seeking nuclear weapons … and are ready for any kind of verification”.

Amid escalating pressure, Mr Trump suggested a second aircraft carrier group could be sent to the Middle East in an interview published on Tuesday night, as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington to push the US toward the strictest-possible terms in any agreement reached with Tehran in nuclear talks.

A top Iranian security official planned to visit Qatar on Wednesday after earlier traveling to Oman, which has mediated this latest round of negotiations.

On Iranian state television, authorities broadcast images of tens of thousands of people taking to the streets across the country on Wednesday to support the theocracy and its 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But on Tuesday night, as government-sponsored fireworks lit the darkened sky, witnesses heard shouts from people’s homes in the Iranian capital, Tehran, of: “Death to the dictator!” 

In the streets, people waved images of Khamenei and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, alongside Iranian and Palestinian flags. Some chanted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” Among Iran’s 85 million people, there is a hard-line element of support for Iran’s theocracy, including members of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which crucially put down the protests last month in a bloody suppression that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained.

Others often take part in demonstrations as they are government employees or to enjoy the carnival atmosphere of a government-sponsored holiday.

- Associated Press Reporters