PBS’s Sayah on Iran Killing Civilians: It’s a ‘Crime’, But Some Attacked Gov’t Buildings and ‘Especially’ U.S. Would Punish People for That

On Friday’s broadcast of PBS’s “Compass Points,” PBS “News Hour” Special Correspondent in Tehran Reza Sayah said that the number of people killed in the crackdown on protests in Iran has been overstated and while the killings of civilians are a “crime against humanity”, “more than 200 of those killed were security forces, … there was a call by Reza Pahlavi­, the crown prince, for people to attack police stations and government buildings. And I don’t know of any government, especially the U.S. government, if you attack a government building, a police station, there [are] going to be repercussions.”

Sayah said that Iran’s regime does crack down on critics, but “the reports that tens of thousands of people were killed [have] been debunked over and over again. And it’s important, in order for me to maintain my integrity as a journalist, to say that these reports have been debunked, and, in many people’s views, these false reports were a justification for military intervention.”

Host Nick Schifrin then cut in to say, “It’s not just the U.S. Other Western governments, NGOs, based here, based elsewhere, have cited these numbers. They are varied, but it’s thousands, and into the tens of thousands.”

Sayah responded, “The Iranian government has come out with a list with national IDs, 3,117 people were killed. No other organization that I know of has brought forth a name and a national ID in addition to those reports. And it’s important to point out that more than 200 of those killed were security forces, that there was a call by Reza Pahlavi­, the crown prince, for people to attack police stations and government buildings. And I don’t know of any government, especially the U.S. government, if you attack a government building, a police station, there [are] going to be repercussions. I also stress that it was a crime against humanity to kill those civilians. It was a crime. But, it’s — for me, it’s important to point out that it wasn’t tens of thousands of people.”

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