Yesterday, the Islamic State group claimed an attack on a Shia shrine in the city of Shiraz, which left 15 people dead and 19 wounded according to Iranian official media.
Senior Iranian officials and state-run outlets have linked this attack to protests over Mahsa Amini, 40 days after her death in police custody.
“These riots pave the ground for terrorist acts,” President Ebrahim Raisi has said.
Authorities have long tried to portray the Mahsa Amini protests as “riots” masterminded by “the enemy” – a broad term which the regime has previously used to mean unfriendly countries, such as Israel or the US, or internal opponents such as Kurdish activists.
The idea is that the current unrest is being orchestrated by these “enemies” and undermining the Iranian state as a whole by creating divisions within society.
Iranian authorities have been pushing the narrative that the unrest then gives “terrorists” an opportunity to carry out such operations inside Iran.__BBC.com
