TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani has reacted to violent events in Brazil in the wake of the country’s inauguration of a new president.

Kanaani has expressed concern about acts of violence, rioting, destruction of public property and attack on democratic and government institutions in Brazil, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

Kanaani said the Islamic Republic of Iran underlines the necessity of maintaining stability and security and respect for the rule of law in Brazil under an administration resulting from the vote and will of people.

Supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings, including the presidential palace on Sunday a little more than a week after leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was inaugurated. 

The new president called the assailants “fascists” and vowed to punish whoever rampaged. 

“Whoever did this will be found and punished. Democracy guarantees the right to free expression, but it also requires people to respect institutions,” he said on Twitter. “There is no precedent in the history of the country what they did today. For that they must be punished.” 

Bolsonaro, who had flown out of Brazil on the eve of Lula’s inauguration, distanced himself from the Sunday events. “Peaceful demonstrations, within the law, form part of democracy,” he tweeted, “However, depredations and invasions of public buildings like those that happened today, as well as those practiced by the left in 2013 and 2017, are exceptions to the rule.”