On Thursday, Iran accused both Israeli and western intelligence services of fermenting a possible civil war inside the Islamic Republic, which has been plagued with mass riots and civil activists demanding free speech and self-determination on a scale not seen since the Iranian revolution of 1979.
Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, tweeted: "Various security services, Israel and some Western politicians who have made plans for civil war, destruction and the disintegration of Iran, should know that Iran is not Libya or Sudan."
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People attend a protest against the Iranian regime, in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022, following the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the Islamic republic's notorious 'morality police'
(Photo: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The current wave of unrest in Iran began on September 16 with the beating and killing of Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini by Iranian police. She was arrested for alleged violation of the strict Islamic dress code.
On Wednesday, a barrage of attacks struck Iran. An attack in the southwestern city of Izeh killed seven people and a separate incident in Isfahan saw a motorcyclist speeding through and shooting several, killing two and injuring an additional eight.
State TV had blamed rioters for the attacks, which have gone unclaimed up until now.
Amini's death sparked nationwide riots and unrest, most notably from women who are forcefully demanding an end to religiously-sanctioned violence against them, as well as free speech in general, a rare commodity in the Islamic Republic.
Both France and the United Kingdom accused Iran of threatening their citizens, after Iran claimed to have arrested two French Intelligence agents, allegedly connected to the riots.