By Violetta Rusheva

New Europe, January 3, 2017 – At least 9 people died on the Tuesday night in the various cities of Iran as a result of anti-government protest that gripped the country last week. Overall, at least 21 people have died in Iran during six days of protests, according to state media.

Nine people, including a child, died overnight in violence in central Iran, while nine Iranians were killed in Isfahan province alone on Monday night, reports say.

Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei in his official statement accused ‘enemies of Iran’ of stirring days of protests and said that he would address the nation about the recent events “when the time was right”.

Spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ray tweeted that the EU is maintaining contacts with the Iranian authorities and expects the country’s citizens to be guaranteed the right to peaceful protests and freedom of expression after protests broke out in the country on Thursday.

The leader of the Iranian opposition Maryam Rajavi, urged the UN Security Council, the US and the EU to undertake urgent actions ‘to prevent the Iranian regime’s slaughter of protesters’.

Violetta Rusheva is a journalist at New Europe.