'Surrender Within 3 Days': Iran Police Chief's Ultimatum To Protesters

Iranian police chief on Monday issued an ultimatum to people who were “deceived” into joining demonstrations if they turned themselves in.

“Young people who became unwittingly involved in the riots are considered to be deceived individuals, not enemy soldiers”, and “will be treated with leniency by the Islamic republic system,” AFP quoted Ahmad-Reza Radan telling the state television.

He added that people had “a maximum of three days” to surrender.”

Demonstrations erupted in late December over economic hardship and quickly became the largest challenge to the Iranian leadership in recent years.

The rallies were largely suppressed after the government imposed a communications blackout on January 8. According to Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights,

at least 3,428 protesters have been verified as killed by security forces.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) on Monday said Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, will not be attending the annual Davos summit in Switzerland this week.

“The Iranian Foreign Minister will not be attending Davos,” the WEF said on X. “Although he was invited last fall, the tragic loss of lives of civilians in Iran over the past few weeks means that it is not right for the Iranian government to be represented at Davos this year.”

Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran’s late shah, has said that the struggle unfolding in Iran is no longer about reform but about “occupation and liberation,” saying the Iranian people have called on him to lead and announcing his intention to return to the country.

Rejecting the notion that the unrest is part of a reformist cycle, he said, “The battle in Iran today is not between reform and revolution. It is between occupation and liberation. And the Iranian people have already chosen their side.”

He has repeatedly called for coordinated demonstrations and urged Iranians to “raise your voices in anger and protest with our national slogans.”

On Saturday, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged authorities to “break the back of the seditionists” and said domestic and foreign “criminals” would not be spared punishment.