U.S. State Department to the Islamic Republic: Only a Weak Regime Needs This Much Violence to Survive

The U.S. Department of State, through a series of messages, images, and videos on its Persian-language account on social media platform X, has once again expressed its support for Iranian protesters and strongly condemned the bloody crackdown on the nationwide uprising by the Islamic Republic. One of the messages states: "The United States stands with the people of Iran and cries out with them for freedom and democracy." The U.S. State Department wrote: "Just remember: only a weak regime needs this much violence to survive." In another part of these messages, the U.S. State Department condemned the Iranian government's use of labels such as "rioter" and "terrorist" to describe protesters, stating: "The Islamic Republic's labeling of protesters as rioters and terrorists does not deceive the world. These are merely labels to justify violence, nothing more." The Persian-language account also emphasized, by publishing a photo and video of Islamic Republic security forces shooting directly at protesters, that: "When a regime needs weapons to confront unarmed people, that is not power; it is fear and cowardice. True power lies with the unarmed protesters who stand against this brutality." The U.S. State Department also referred to the announcement of three days of public mourning by the Islamic Republic for the deaths of security forces, writing: "Mourning for oppressors, bullets for the people; this is the Islamic Republic's conception of justice." The message continued: "You cannot mourn for the perpetrators of crimes while spilling the blood of innocent Iranians in the streets." In another part of these statements, the cutting of the internet as a tool for concealing repression was criticized, emphasizing: "The Islamic Republic cuts off the internet to hide its brutality but keeps it connected for itself to spread lies to the world. But the world is watching and knows the truth." This account also stressed that Washington has not forgotten political prisoners while exposing the violence against protesters. The message stated: "While we expose your violence against protesters, do not think we have forgotten the political prisoners who were imprisoned even before these protests." The U.S. State Department continued by naming several political prisoners, including Narges Mohammadi, Sepideh Qoliyan, Javad Alikordi, Pouran Nazemi, Reza Khandan, Majid Tavakoli, Sharifeh Mohammadi, Hossein Ronaghi, and "many others," adding: "Their continued detention remains a serious concern. We call on the Islamic Republic to immediately release these prisoners and all political prisoners."