{"id":81451,"date":"2026-01-11T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/un-chief-shocked-by-reports-of-excessive-force-against-protesters-in-iran\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T12:00:00","slug":"un-chief-shocked-by-reports-of-excessive-force-against-protesters-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=81451","title":{"rendered":"UN chief \u2018shocked\u2019 by reports of excessive force against protesters in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\u201c<strong>All Iranians must be able to express their grievances peacefully and without fear,<\/strong>\u201d Ant\u00f3nio Guterres\u2019 spokesperson said in a statement issued on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>The rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, as enshrined in international law, must be fully respected and protected.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Secretary-General called on Iranian authorities to exercise maximum restraint and to refrain from unnecessary or disproportionate use of force.<\/p>\n<p>He also called for steps to enable access to information, including restoring communications.<\/p>\n<p>Internet and mobile connectivity were shut down on the evening of 8 January, severely restricting access to information as violence escalated. The protests began on 28 December following the sudden collapse of Iran\u2019s national currency and have since spread to at least 46 cities across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of people \u2013 including at least five children \u2013 have been killed and many more injured. Iran\u2019s parliament has also reported fatalities among members of the security forces.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/01\/1166739\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAll Iranians must be able to express their grievances peacefully and without fear,\u201d Ant\u00f3nio Guterres\u2019 spokesperson&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.0 (Yoast SEO v28.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UN chief \u2018shocked\u2019 by reports of excessive force against protesters in Iran - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/01\/1166739\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UN chief \u2018shocked\u2019 by reports of excessive force against protesters in Iran\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE&#039;s Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/01\/1166739\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-11T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765764392_image560x340cropped.avif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"340\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UN chief \u2018shocked\u2019 by reports of excessive force against protesters in Iran - 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