Iran confirmed on Sunday, through a Foreign Ministry spokesman, that it is too strong to be affected by the statements of US President Joe Biden in support of the protests that followed the death of the young woman, Mahsa Amini.

Since September 16, the Islamic Republic has witnessed protests following the death of Amini, 22, three days after she was arrested by the morality police for not adhering to strict dress codes.

Dozens, including members of the security forces, died on the sidelines of the protests, in which women play a key role. The authorities announced the arrest of hundreds of protesters for their involvement in "riots".

Several Western countries, led by the United States, expressed their support for the protesters, and imposed sanctions on Iranian officials for their role in "suppressing" the movements.

On Friday, the US President expressed his "astonishment" at the protests, reiterating his support for the "brave" Iranians.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani commented, through his account on Instagram, that "Iran is too powerful for its will to be destabilized by the interventions of the American president."

Kanaani described the US president as "a politician who is tired of carrying out fruitless actions against Iran during the past years," stressing that Tehran will incur Washington "an additional failure."

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had accused the United States, the archenemy of the Islamic Republic, of working to destabilize it in light of the protests, saying that "the Iranian nation has thwarted the American military option, and, according to what they themselves admitted, inflicted a heavy defeat on the policy of sanctions and maximum pressure."

For many years, Washington has imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic under various names, most notably the Iranian nuclear file. The United States re-imposed severe sanctions starting in 2018, following the decision of its former president, Donald Trump, to unilaterally withdraw his country from the nuclear agreement between Tehran and major powers concluded in 2015.

Earlier in October, the United States announced sanctions against seven senior Iranian officials for their role in "quelling" the protests, days after Biden pledged to continue "holding Iranian officials to account and supporting Iranians' rights to demonstrate freely."

AFP