TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has told European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell that Iran is not a “land for velvet or colorful coups” and called Iran “anchorage of durable stability in the region.”

In a telephone conversation with Borrell on Friday night, Amir Abdollahian also said that Iran is “fully backed by its people and enjoys effective democracy.”

The telephone conversation came a few days before the EU foreign ministers decide whether to introduce sanctions on Iran for what they claim Tehran’s crackdown on protestors.

Iran has been insisting that it is dealing with vandalism and those who make deadly attacks on security forces following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who fainted while in the custody of morality police last month.

The Iranian foreign minister said, “The death of the late Mahsa Amini is painful for all of us.” However, he pointed out that this issue is just regarded as a pretext for intervention by some Western authorities in Iran’s internal affairs.

The minister insisted that that peaceful protests and demands are different from riots.

Amir Abdollahian reiterated that a detailed and scientific forensic report has been provided by a significant number of highly specialized physicians and experts on the death of Amini. He added that legal actions on her death are going on.

Furthermore, touching on some Western authorities’ double standards, Amir Abdollahian asked, “What has the West done regarding hundreds of cases of intentional murder of women and children in Canada and the U.S., especially by the police? One cannot say that the most violent shapes of confrontation in face of rioters in Europe can be considered as a good and acceptable act, however, the same act is considered as repression in Iran even when it is within a legal framework.”

“Peaceful demands are different from riots, murders, arson, and terrorist operations,” he pointed out, according to Press TV.

Also, Iran this week privately warned EU diplomats to abandon sanctions against Tehran over its handling of the protests, warning diplomats the move may rupture Europe’s ties to Tehran. 

“If Europe misses taking the nuances of the current situation into consideration, the ramification will be grave and the bilateral relations may not survive it,” warned one letter sent to a group of EU ambassadors and seen by POLITICO.

Borrell on Wednesday received a similar letter, also seen by POLITICO, from Amir Abdollahian.

The letter sent to Borrell says that Iranian authorities bear no responsibility for Amini’s death and says the protesters have shown “a pattern of violence and terror.”

It adds, “21 police officers [have] been martyred and tens of them injured by daggers and weapons.”

Just a few days after Amir Abdollahian’s letter to Borrell, two security forces were shot dead by hooligans in the city of Birem-Larestan in Fars province on Friday morning.

“We and Europe might mildly or strongly agree or disagree on many issues, but this is always a two-way street, as in the case of restoring to measures of restrictive nature,” Amir Abdollahian writes. “Therefore, I strongly discourage both sides from entering into this avenue.”

The letter sent to EU ambassadors implies that punishing Iran will “bear a detrimental impact on Iran-Europe relations,” which are already “at their most fragile at the moment.” It also deplores the “current Iran-bashing trends in Europe” and accuses “war-mongering factions in the United States” of “stoking the fire of conflict.”

Several European diplomats confirmed they had received the message from the Iranian ambassador.