Iran’s police chief has issued a stern warning to those behind the recent violent riots, vowing that security forces will continue operations until “the very last person” involved in terrorist activities is apprehended.
In a detailed briefing on the unrest, General Ahmadreza Radan reassured the public of the security apparatus’s vigilance, noting that many key leaders and foreign‑linked operatives have already been detained.
He stated that several individuals arrested during the riots were directly connected to foreign intelligence services, were found in possession of large sums of US dollars, and had received training in urban destabilization.
“We arrested individuals who were trained to stage scenes,” Radan said. “They were instructed to pretend they had been wounded by police to manipulate public perception.”
He credited the failure of the enemy’s plot to the vigilance of the Iranian people, saying that once the public recognized the violent nature of the rioters, they distanced themselves. “In the final days, the rioters were left alone,” he added, noting that this separation allowed security forces to take firm action. Many arrests, he said, were made possible through citizen tips to police hotlines.
Maximum Restraint
Radan stated the riots saw unprecedented violence against civilian infrastructure, including attacks on mosques, private homes, and public property—tactics he described as aimed at creating maximum chaos.
Addressing the conduct of security forces, he emphasized that police exercised maximum restraint in the early days of the disturbances to distinguish peaceful protesters from organized rioters. “Our threshold of tolerance was intentionally high,” he said, arguing that rioters sought to create casualties to portray the government as murderous.
He also described a tactic in which gunmen within crowds fired on civilians and police stations to fabricate a narrative of state‑led violence. Radan said security forces willingly accepted the risk of being martyred or wounded rather than using lethal force that could endanger innocent bystanders.
Scores of members of the security forces were killed during the riots last Thursday and Friday. On Monday, a funeral procession for 30 members of the security forces was held in the city of Isfahan in central Iran.