MADRID, Jan 13, 2026 (AFP) - Spain on Tuesday summoned Iran's ambassador to Madrid to express "strong repudiation and condemnation" of a crackdown on protests that rights groups say has killed hundreds, the foreign minister said.
"The right of Iranian men and women to peaceful protest, their freedom of expression, must be respected" and "arbitrary arrests must cease", Jose Manuel Albares told Catalunya Radio.
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"Iran must return to the dialogue tables and to the negotiating tables, and we will of course put an emphasis on the rights of women," Albares added.
An internet blackout across Iran has masked the repression of the weeks-long demonstrations and make it difficult to independently verify reports of violence, rights groups say.
They have warned that thousands have been injured and that the toll could be vastly underestimated.
The Iranian authorities have blamed foreign interference on the protests, which began on economic grounds but have turned into one of the biggest challenges yet to the theocratic system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution ousted the shah.
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