Poisoning school girls is 'enemies of Iran' work: Raisi

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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has accused "Tehran's enemies" of the recent mass poisoning of schoolgirls throughout the nation in a speech he delivered to a crowd in southern Iran. 

“This is a security project to cause chaos in the country whereby the enemy seeks to instill fear and insecurity among parents and students,” he said.

Iran’s health minister announced that hundreds of girls in different schools have been affected.

Additionally, another Iranian official pointed out that a suspicious fuel tanker that was found near a school in a suburb of Tehran, after being spotted in two other sites near other schools in Qom and Bourjerd, is suspected to be responsible for the poisoning. The tanker was reportedly apprehended and the driver was arrested. 

Read more: CNN reports about riots in Iran 'biased, false': Iranian FM

The poisoning attacks targeted around 30 schools in Qom afflicting around a hundred students which caused many families to pull their kids out of school.

“Guards at a parking lot where the fuel tanker was parked also suffered from poisoning,” the deputy governor of the Pardis suburb told Pardis. 

Ever since the poisoning attacks started growing in momentum, Western officials and agencies capitalized on the grief which befell Iranian schools to smear the Iranian government. 

The poisoning attacks were plugged into the narratives demonizing the Islamic Republic which were initiated last September with the start of the riots. 

On Wednesday, the US state department called for a transparent investigation of the case. 

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock also expressed shock at the incident and called for it to be investigated fully.

Read next: Secret US contingency plan for war with Iran unmasked: The Intercept

The US has persistently aspired for destabilizing the Islamic Republic. Recently, A classified Pentagon budget manual listing emergency and special programs reviewed by The Intercept unmasked that the US military has set a budget for secret contingency operations related to an Iran war plan.

According to the manual for the 2019 budget year, the contingency plan, codenamed "Support Sentry", was financed in 2018 and 2019. It defines "Support Sentry" as an Iran "CONPLAN" or concept plan, which is a broad contingency plan for war developed by the military in advance of a potential crisis.

The existence of "Support Sentry" was kept unreported. The memo does not specify how much money the Pentagon spent on the strategy over the aforementioned years, as per the report.