00:00Iran has summoned diplomats representing France, Germany, Italy and the UK in the capital Tehran on Monday
00:07to object to their declared support for anti-government protests.
00:12The diplomats were shown a video of the damage the writers had allegedly caused
00:16and were told their government should quote,
00:19withdraw official statements supporting the protesters.
00:22The wave of condemnation from Western governments came after a Norway-based Iran human rights group
00:28said close to 650 protesters were killed in clashes with security forces.
00:34The group, however, stressed that the figures are mere estimates,
00:37warning that the actual death toll is likely to be far higher.
00:41The Oslo-based Iran human rights NGO said that some estimates indicate that more than 6,000 people
00:47were killed in government crackdowns, but that independent verification was extremely difficult.
00:52The leaders of France, Germany and the UK have all condemned what they labelled as state violence
00:58and urged the Iranian government to respect the people's right to protest.
01:03The EU said it was looking into imposing more sanctions on Tehran
01:07over their resorting to lethal force to quell the uprisings.
01:11The protests, now into their third week, started in Tehran as people grew more frustrated
01:17with continuous economic decline, heightened by the collapse of the currency, the rial.
01:23They quickly spread into other cities, demanding regime change,
01:27in what has become one of the most serious challenges to the country's theocracy
01:31since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
01:34Amen.
