Iran president vows to ensure morality police don't 'bother' women

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed Monday to ensure the morality police would no longer "bother" women, in remarks to the media on the second anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death in custody.

Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died in police custody on September 16, 2022, days after the morality police arrested her in Tehran for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

Her death triggered months-long protests nationwide, with hundreds of people killed, including dozens of security personnel. Thousands of demonstrators were arrested.

"The morality police were not supposed to confront (women). I will follow up so they don't bother" them, Pezeshkian said during his first press conference in Iran since he took office in July.

Pezeshkian replaced the ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.

During election campaigning, he had vowed to "fully" oppose police patrols enforcing the mandatory hijab headscarf, as well as easing long-standing internet restrictions.

Iran has over the years tightly controlled internet use, restricting popular social media platforms such as Facebook and X.

Harsher curbs were enforced following 2019 protests against fuel price hikes and during the demonstrations triggered by Amini's death.

On Monday, Pezeshkian said his government was working to ease restrictions online, especially on social media.

- Relations with the West -

At his press conference, Pezeshkian briefly touched on other topics including Iran's fraught relations with the United States and the 2015 nuclear deal.

"We do not want to fight with America if it respects our rights," he said.

"It is not us who are hostile (to the Americans). We have not built military bases around their country," Pezeshkian added, referring to US bases in the Gulf and in Iraq.

Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations since 1980, the year after the Islamic Revolution that toppled its Western-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

A landmark 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers granted Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

But the deal quickly collapsed and tensions reignited after the United States unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran the following year.

Iran has since suspended its compliance with caps on nuclear activities.

"We are not seeking nuclear weapons. We have respected the framework of the nuclear agreement," Pezeshkian said.

He charged that Washington "broke the agreement and forced us to do something."

Pezeshkian also spoke about newly imposed European sanctions targeting Iranian air transport over accusations that Tehran had delivered ballistic missiles to Russia for use in the Ukraine war.

Iran has repeatedly denied sending weapons to Russia for use in the war, and vowed to respond to the latest in a long string of Western sanctions.

Pezeshkian said Iran has "not given" Russia any weapons at least since he assumed the presidency.

"It is possible that Iran and Russia had military cooperation in the past... because there was no ban at the time," he said.

"What I can say with certainty is that since our arrival, we have not given them anything."

- 'Disarm Israel' -

He also insisted on Iran's right to maintain its missile programme, which has drawn Western criticism, as a deterrent against its arch-foe Israel.

"They (the West) want us not to have missiles, that is fine, but you need to disarm Israel first," he said, adding that otherwise "they can drop bombs on us whenever they want, like in Gaza".

Pezeshkian also said "we don't have in Iran the type of hypersonic missile" that Tehran-backed Huthi rebels claimed to have fired at Israel on Sunday, rejecting accusations that Iran had supplied the missile used in the rare attack.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier denied as a whole any weapons transfer to Yemen.

Israel launched a relentless campaign against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, following the October 7 attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel's offensive has killed at least 41,226 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry.

Tehran hailed Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel but denied any involvement.

Iran does not recognise Israel, and has made support for the Palestinian cause a centrepiece of its foreign policy since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.