Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has blamed the nationwide poisoning of Iranian schoolgirls on Tehran’s “enemies” who are seeking to wage a "hybrid war" against Iran.
"This is a security project to cause chaos in the country whereby the enemy seeks to instill fear and insecurity among parents and students," said Raisi during a speech in southern Iran on Friday which aired on state television.
“One day, the enemies instigate street riots and another day they try to create problems in the field of education and schools because despite all the plots, people across the country came to the scene and defeated the enemy on February 11,” said Raisi, referring to the 44th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the pro-Western Shah.
The Iranian president did not specify which “enemies” he was referring to in his speech. Raisi added that he had tasked his ministers of intelligence and interior to follow up on the poisonings and to make their findings public.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian echoed the president’s sentiments, but targeted his criticism against concerned Western governments and accused them of “shedding crocodile tears” over the poisoned schoolgirls.
“The interventionist reaction of some Western authorities to the question of the suspected poisoning of dear Iranian female students is the continuation of the enemy's hybrid war,” he wrote in a Twitter post after Germany and other states said the poisonings should be investigated.
“The relevant institutions of the country are following up seriously and meticulously examining its dimensions. The great nation of Iran know crocodile tears very well!”
John Kirby, the White House’s national security spokesperson, also weighed in on the attacks, remarking that the development was “deeply concerning.”
Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American activist who works for the US State Department-funded Voice of America, earlier told US media that an "outside" organizations also needed to be called on to carry out an independent review on the poisonings.
“We need the United Nations accountability mechanism to be on board, we need the Doctors Without Borders to be on board and do an open investigation about this tragedy in Iran,” Alinejad said.
The terrorist attacks on Iran's children, mostly schoolgirls, have occurred at more than 30 schools in at least four cities, first beginning in November in the city of Qom. Nearly 900 schoolchildren—a majority of which have been girls— were poisoned by some substance that was “chemical” in essence but did not contain compound chemicals used in warfare and the symptoms of the girls who fell ill were not contagious, according to Iran’s deputy health minister.
However, a mother of two girls in Qom told US media that both of her daughters had been poisoned at separate schools, and one of them has had serious health issues ever since the incident. She first experienced nausea, shortness of breath and numbness in her left leg and right hand.
“Now she has trouble with her right foot and has difficulty walking,” the mother said on Tuesday.
“We’re very concerned about these allegations that girls are being deliberately targeted under what appear to be mysterious circumstances,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a briefing.
“The poisoning of students at girls’ schools, which have been confirmed as deliberate acts, was neither arbitrary nor accidental,” tweeted Mohammad Habibi, spokesman for the Iranian Teachers Trade Association on February 26.
Habibi believes the poisonings are linked to recent “Women, Life, Freedom!” protests in Iran spurred by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who is believed to have been killed at the hands of the country’s “morality police” after she failed to properly wear her hijab.
At least four protesters have been executed by the Iranian government for their role in those protests, all four were men and were charged with “moharebe” a term that means waging a war on God. The trials were fast-tracked behind closed doors, during which the accused had just 15 minutes to defend themselves, and Iran’s Revolutionary Court system relied on forced confessions from the accused which were broadcast on state television.