Iran censures US intervention, says Washington shedding 'crocodile tears' for Iranians

Iran's Foreign Ministry has slammed the United States for making interventionist statement on the occasion of Yalda Night, saying Washington is "shedding crocodile tears" for Iranians with its long list of inhumane measures against the nation.

"The US, which supports riots and terrorism and imposes sanctions and maximum pressure against the people of Iran, sheds crocodile tears for Iranians on the night of Yalda," spokesman Nasser Kan'ani tweeted on Wednesday.

Earlier, the US State Department spokesman Ned Price seized the opportunity of the arrival of the Winter solstice, which is celebrated across Iran as the "Yalda Night", to once again bring the Islamic Republic's response to recent foreign-backed riots into question.

"We mourn with the people of Iran, and we reiterate our commitment to the Iranian people," the American official claimed, urging the Iranian authorities "to listen" to the people.

Kan'ani said the United States has been -- foremost among the Western countries -- lending support to "anarchy and terrorism."

"The allies and supporters of known terrorists had better shut their mouths and rather...think about resolving the intense crises facing their own people, their own country as well as the Zionist regime," the Iranian official said, referring to the Israeli regime, which is the US's main regional ally.

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Iran has been the scene of deadly riots over the past weeks, with foreign-backed rioters seeking to hijack the protests that emerged following the death of a young Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini.

She died in police custody in mid-September in an incident, which has been proven to have happened as a result of illness, not through any fault of Iranian law enforcement forces.

Large numbers of Iranian civilians and security forces were killed in the riots.

Iranian security forces and intelligence agents have, since the onset of the riots, been investing round-the-clock and rigorous efforts to identify the anarchists and the murderous elements, and bring them to justice.

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Kan'ani also reminded that the US was laying claim to caring about the Iranian people, while it has brought the Islamic Republic under "sanctions and maximum pressure."

The United States launched the "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran under former president Donald Trump. As part of the campaign, the US left the 2015 nuclear agreement, and returned the draconian sanctions that the deal had lifted. 

The administration of Trump's successor Joe Biden had alleged a willingness to undo Trump’s wrongs by rejoining the deal, but it has retained the sanctions as leverage and even imposed a slew of its own coercive economic measures against the Islamic Republic.

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