Iranian protesters call for three-day strike as pressure on regime builds

State media distance themselves from claim morality police' have been shut down after Mahsa Amini death

Protesters in Iran have called for a three-day strike this week amid conflicting reports that its morality police" had been shut down, and as the US said the leadership in Tehran had locked itself into a vicious cycle" that had cut it off from its own people and the international community.

The call steps up pressure on Iranian authorities after the attorney general said this weekend that the morality police - whose detention of a young woman triggered months of protests - had been shut down. There was no confirmation of the closure from the interior ministry, which is in charge of the morality police, and Iranian state media said the attorney general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, was not responsible for overseeing the force.