The Iranian police announced, Saturday, the arrest of nearly 70 people in the aftermath of enamelled protests of violence against the dewatering of an iconic river in Ispahan, the third city of Iran.
For more than two weeks, demonstrations are organized by residents of Isfahan who complain about the terrible drought, and who blame the authorities to divert the water from the Zayandh Rud River from this city from the center of the country, – 400 km south of Tehran – to supply the neighboring province of Yazd who is so cruelly lacking water.
For the first time Friday, November 26, the event was accompanied by clashes between law enforcement and protesters. Nourodin Soltanian, spokesperson for the University Hospital of Isfahan, quoted Saturday by the Mehr news agency, reported injured protesters, including “two in a serious state”.
“We arrested 67 of the main authors and distortions of trouble,” said a senior official of the National Police, General Hassan Karami, at the Press Agency Fars. He reported “about 2,000 to 3,000 rioters in Friday’s disorders”. The arrests were conducted by the police, the guardians of the Revolution, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the information services.
Lacrymogenic grenades against stone jets
Saturday, the city of Isfahan was calm according to witnesses and the police force was deployed there. “I’m used to walking around the river bed with friends but today the riding police are deployed in large numbers near the Khadjou Bridge and she asks people to avoid this sector,” said a Quinquagnary attached by phone.
Friday, “After the departure of farmers [from the gathering point], opportunists and counterrevolutionaries remained on site,” said Isfahan police chief, Mohammad-Réza Mirheidari. Security services have “identified and stop people who destroyed public goods”.
The police shot the tearful grenades on the protesters who fought with stones, breaking the windows of an ambulance and burned a police motorcycle, according to the Press Agency Fars.
“Due to the jets of stones and the use of firecrackers and deafening bombs, some of our colleagues were wounded. Others were on shots of hunting rifles,” added Mr. Mirheidari on television. “A police officer was also stabbed but his condition is satisfactory,” he said again.
A dry river since 2000
The Zayandh Rud River, which runs through Isfahan, is dry since 2000, except for some brief periods. It has become the main place of rally of protesters. According to Karami, “30,000 to 40,000 farmers and the inhabitants of Isfahan participated in the gatherings last week”.
Saturday, the Kayhan UltraConservative newspaper accused “wan of mercenaries for triggering riots” to Isfahan. On the other hand, the Reformer newspaper Etemad saw in these gatherings the sign of a “lack of confidence of protesters with regard to the government to solve the problems”.
The United States, Juror’s enemy of Iran, declared themselves “deeply worried” of “violent repression” against “peaceful” protesters in Isfahan, according to the terms of the State Department. “The Iranian people have the right to express his frustration and hold his government responsible for”.
Thursday, an agreement was concluded between the farmers in the Isfahan region and the authorities on the distribution of 50 million cubic meters of water, according to Fars. According to this agency, a pipeline transporting the water from the province of Isfahan to Yazd has been destroyed, Thursday night, by a bulldozer, as well as three water tanks. As a result, drinking water in Yazd localities has been cut off.
The arid country, Iran has been experiencing a chronic drought for years, with the consequences of regular floods caused by the combination of the hardening of soils and more or less violent precipitation.