TEHRAN – Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on Saturday that all enemies, despite having differences with each other, have got untied in opposing Iran.

“All the enemies of the Revolution, despite their differences, have become united in confronting the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Qalibaf said.

The speaker went on to say that Iran is insistent on its rights and “opposes hegemony and the Zionist regime”.

In an indirect reference to hostility toward Iran by Tel Aviv and certain Western countries, the senior lawmaker said “independence entails costs”.

The comments by the speaker came after riots in certain cities following the sudden collapse and death of a 22-year-old girl, who had been arrested by morality police in Tehran to be educated on Islamic dress code.

Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi has said the riots have nothing to do with the death of the girl, called Mahsa Amini.

Speaking in a special televised program on Friday night, Vahidi said the issue is being exploited by rabble-rousers to spark chaos and wreak havoc across the country.

Amini, a Kurdish girl from the northwestern city of Saqez, died in hospital on Friday despite intensive medical care and resuscitation efforts. She died after three days in a coma.

Despite Iranian officials’ clarification on circumstances surrounding Amini’s death, violent street protests have erupted and led to attacks on security officers and acts of vandalism against public property and sacred places.

“There are organized groups that carry out acts of sabotage in these gatherings and set fire to public property by being present in different areas. They are not after Ms. Amini's issue at all, and under this excuse they started rioting,” Press TV quoted Vahidi as saying.

“The issue of such riots is not related to Ms. Amini at all, and some people used this issue as an excuse to wreak havoc in the country,” the interior minister added.

The minister has also dismissed claims that the 22-year-old girl died because of a blow to her head, saying forensic medicine shows that she had never been beaten.

Initially, there were reports that officers had beaten Amini's head with a baton. The police have denied that she was mistreated and said she suffered "sudden heart failure".

President Ebrahim Raisi has assigned Vahidi to investigate the Amini death.