RUSSIA has slammed an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Iran as “harmful and destructive” as the international committee announces plans to meet on Friday.
The US called for the extraordinary council sitting to discuss the anti-Government protest in Iran which has seen a number of violent clashes between police and demonstrators.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov is reported to have said: “Iran's domestic affairs have nothing to do with the United Nations Security Council's role.”
He added that the possibility of new US sanctions on Iran were “illegitimate”.
Nikki Haley, the US Representative at the UN, proposed the emergency meeting of the Security Council earlier this week.
Speaking on Tuesday she said: “Nowhere is the urgency of peace, security, and freedom being more tested than in Iran.
“It takes great bravery for the Iranian people to use the power of their voice against their government, especially when their own Government has a long history of murdering its own people who dare to speak the truth.”
She added that “the international community has a role to play” in the conflict and that “the UN must speak out”.
More than 1,000 people have been arrested and at least 21 people have been killed during the protests.
Riot police have used extreme measures such as water cannon and tear gas to try and disperse crowds.
President Trump criticised Iran’s actions on Twitter earlier this week.
On Twitter, he said: “Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime’s corruption and its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad.
“Iranian government should respect their people’s rights, including the right to express themselves. The world is watching.”
Protests across Iran broke out on December 28 as furious citizens called on President Hassan Rouhani’s Government to focus less on issues abroad and more on domestic problems.
Chants of "not Gaza, not Lebanon, my life for Iran" and "leave Syria, think about us" have broken out in cities across the country.
The anger on the streets of Iran comes as the country tussles with Saudi Arabia for power over the Middle East.
Tehran has been involved in a proxy war with Saudi Arabia in Yemen for the last three years.
Meanwhile, inflation has spiralled out of control in Iran, with the price of basic food items such as milk and eggs doubling in the period of a week.
Despite international sanctions on the country being relaxed in 2015 economic growth has continued to stagnate.
The protests are the first to take place in the country since 2009.
