Iran has cracked down on the biggest demonstrations since 2019, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on September 16 this year after she was detained by morality police enforcing the Islamic Republic's strict restrictions on women's dress. The case has drawn widespread condemnation.
The measures have not stopped Iranians from calling for the fall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the rest of the clerical establishment.
Canada will impose sanctions on those responsible for the death of Amini, including Iran's morality police unit and its leadership, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday.
"We've seen Iran disregarding human rights time and time again, now we see it with the death of Mahsa Amini and the crackdown on protests," Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.
Activist
Twitter account 1500tasvir posted videos it said showed street protests late on
Monday in different parts of Tehran, and footage where residents could be heard
shouting "Death to Khamenei" from their homes. Reuters could not
verify the videos.
Human rights group Hengaw posted a video which it said showed protesters cheering in Sanandaj, capital of Kurdistan province, as women took off their headscarves to protest forced hijab. In a later video, heavy shooting could be heard as streets appeared to be filled with tear gas.
Another video posted on social media purported to show security forces opening fire late on Monday during protests in Sardasht, a town with a large Kurdish population. Reuters could not verify the videos.
Iran said the United States was supporting rioters and seeking to destabilize the Islamic Republic.
"Washington is always trying to weaken Iran's stability and security although it has been unsuccessful," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in a statement.
On his Instagram page, Kanaani accused the leaders of the United States and some European countries of abusing a tragic incident in support of "rioters" and ignoring "the presence of millions of people in the streets and squares of the country in support of the system".
Also on Monday, Germany summoned the Iranian ambassador in Berlin to urge Tehran to stop its crackdown and allow peaceful protests. Asked about the possibility of further sanctions on Tehran in response to the violence, a German foreign ministry spokesperson had earlier said, "We will consider all options" with other European Union states.
Last week, the United States imposed sanctions on Iran's morality police over allegations of abuse of Iranian women, saying it held the unit responsible for the death of Amini.
On Sunday, Iran summoned the British and Norwegian ambassadors over what it called interference and hostile media coverage of the unrest.
The anti-government protests are the largest to sweep Iran since demonstrations over fuel prices in 2019, when Reuters reported 1,500 people were killed in a crackdown on protesters - the bloodiest bout of internal unrest in the Islamic Republic's history.
Although the demonstrations over Amini's death are a major challenge to the government, analysts see no immediate threat to Iran's leaders because the elite security forces have stamped out protests in the past.
Iran has blamed armed Iranian Kurdish dissidents of involvement in the unrest, particularly in the northwest where most of Iran's up to 10 million Kurds live.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards launched an artillery and drone attack on Iranian militant opposition bases in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, the second such attack in two days, state media said.
