The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, stated this Wednesday that while the UN does not yet have "its own figure of deaths" from the protests in Iran, the figures reported so far, ranging from 2,000 to 12,000 dead, are "horrible." At a press conference, Guterres' spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, assured that the UN is "extremely concerned" about the situation in Iran after seeing images of dead protesters and the violence during the protests. "We do not have our own figure to share, but all the figures we have seen that range from 2,000 to 12,000 dead are horrible," lamented the spokesman, who "strongly opposes" the threats of the death penalty against arrested protesters. Dujarric confirmed that the UN is "trying to schedule" contacts with Iranian authorities "as soon as possible" and pointed out that the United Nations has a team of 46 international officials and more than 400 national officials in the country. The NGO Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) raised the number of protesters killed in the 18 days of anti-government protests in Iran due to repression by state forces to at least 3,428 this past Tuesday, while "thousands of people" have been injured. According to IHRNGO, at least 3,379 deaths were recorded alone between January 8 and 12, and more than 10,000 people have been arrested since the protests began. "We again urge the Iranian authorities to allow people to protest peacefully and to protect that right," stated the Secretary-General's spokesman. Additionally, he recalled that the UN currently does not have a human rights presence in Iran, and that the on-the-ground staff is mainly dedicated to humanitarian and development tasks, which makes it difficult to confirm any event in the country.
