Iran’s supreme leader has called US President Donald Trump a “criminal” for his support of Iranian protesters, whom he blames for thousands of deaths.
In remarks broadcast on state television on Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the protests had killed “thousands” of people – the first time Iran’s leader has indicated the extent of the toll from the wave of protests that began on December 28 and led to a bloody crackdown.
“During this rebellion, the president of the United States personally spoke, encouraging the agitators to move on and saying, ‘We do support you, we do support you militarily,'” said Khamenei, who has the final say on all state affairs.
He reiterated accusations that the United States seeks to control Iran’s economic and political resources.
A man holds a poster of Iran’s supreme leader at the funeral of a group of security forces killed during protests in Tehran (Vahid Salemi/AP)
(Wahid Salemi)
“We do believe that the president of the United States is a criminal because of the casualties and damage caused because of the accusations against the Iranian state,” he said.
He described the protesters as America’s “foot soldiers” and said they had destroyed mosques and educational centers. “By hurting people, they killed thousands,” he said.
His remarks came just a day after Trump struck a conciliatory tone, saying “Iran called off the hanging of over 800 people,” adding “I respect the fact that they called it off.”
He did not clarify who he spoke to in Iran to confirm any planned executions. His comments suggested he might abandon military strikes.
In recent days, Trump has told protesting Iranians that “help is on the way” and that his administration would “act accordingly” if the killings of demonstrators continued or if Iranian authorities executed detained protesters.
Ayatollah Khamenei said in his speech that the rioters were carrying live ammunition imported from abroad, but he did not name any country.
“We have no plan, we are not going to let the country go to war. But we are not going to release domestic criminals, and worse than domestic criminals, there are international criminals. We are not letting them go either,” he said, urging officials to pursue the cases.
Reza Pahlavi called on protesters to take to the streets again (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
(Mark Schiffelbein)
Iran has returned to an uneasy calm after a harsh crackdown on protests over its struggling economy that began on December 28.
The crackdown has killed at least 3,090 people, more than any other round of protests or riots in Iran in decades, and recalling the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution, the U.S.-based Activists News Agency reported.
The agency has been accurate during years of demonstrations, relying on a network of activists across Iran to confirm all reported deaths. The Associated Press could not independently confirm the tolls.
Iranian officials have repeatedly accused the United States and Israel of fomenting unrest in the country. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the United States and Israel of intervening in the unrest in a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.
There have been no signs of protests in Tehran for several days, with shopping and street life returning to a semblance of normalcy and Iranian state media not reporting any new unrest.
During the unrest, authorities blocked all Internet access on January 8. Text messaging and very limited internet services began operating briefly again in parts of Iran on Saturday, witnesses said.
Text messaging to mobile phones started operating overnight, while users could access local websites through domestic internet services. Some people have also reported restricted access to international internet services through the use of virtual private networks.
Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s call for protesters to take to the streets again from Saturday to Monday appeared to have been ignored by Saturday afternoon.
Pahlavi, whose father was overthrown in Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, has the support of die-hard monarchists in the diaspora but has struggled to gain wider appeal at home.
However, this has not stopped him from seeing himself as Iran’s transitional leader should the government collapse.