
TDN World Desk: Reacting to the internet shut down imposed by Iraninan government to alleviate protests over fuel-hike, The US State Department on Saturday called on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to suspend the accounts of Iranian government leaders until Tehran re-establishes internet coverage throughout the riot-torn country.
”It is a deeply hypocritical regime,” Brian Hook, special US representative for Iran, said in an interview with Bloomberg posted on the official State Department Twitter account.
“It shuts down the internet while its government continues to use all of these social media accounts.”
“So one of the things that we are calling on are social media companies like Facebook and Instagram and Twitter to shut down the accounts of Supreme Leader Khamenei, the Foreign Minister Zarif and President Rouhani until they restore the internet to their own people,” said Brian.
However, Hassan Rouhani, President of Iran blamed US and Israel for backing the protesters from behind.
“The number of people who had taken to the streets was clear, and there were only a few hooligans were among them; but the hooligans were well organized and armed, acting on behalf of the regional reactionaries, the Zionists and Americans,” Rouhani said, reports Fars News Agency.