The US has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday to discuss the “troubling and dangerous situation” in Iran, it was announced Thursday. Protests have roiled the country over the past week. Twenty-one people have been killed and hundreds have been arrested in the unrest.
The protests started out over Iran’s economic situation but have since taken on an anti-government tinge. Iran’s interior ministry has said that up to 42,000 have taken part in the protests.
“The world has witnessed the horrors that have taken place in Syria, that began with a murderous regime denying its people’s right to peacefully protest. We must not let that happen in Iran,” US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley said. “It will be telling if any country tries to deny the Security Council from even having this discussion, just as the Iranian regime tries to deny its own people the ability to have their voices heard.”