Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has accused the US and Israel of orchestrating anti-regime protests sparked by the death in police custody of a young woman arrested for allegedly breaking Islamic dress code .
At least 41 people have been killed in a crackdown since protests erupted across the country in recent weeks, state television said. Amnesty International put the death toll at more than 50.
In his first comments since the protests began, Khamenei supported the police and said “these riots and insecurities were orchestrated by the United States and the fake Zionist regime while those who were on their payroll and some traitors Iranian expatriates helped them”.
Khamenei told Iran’s armed forces in a public address on Monday that he was also ‘hurt’ because of ‘this incident’ – the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman after morality police killed her. arrested in the capital Tehran. Her family said she was beaten in custody at the morality center. The officers denied this and said his death was linked to a pre-existing condition.
However, Iran’s top leader said that while investigations were underway into what led to his death, it was “not normal” to see “some made the streets unsafe, set fire to the Koran, kidnapped the hijab of the heads of religious women and the burning of mosques”. , religious places and popular cars”.
“In these incidents, the country’s police forces, the Basij [voluntary forces of the Revolutionary Guards] and the Iranian nation has faced injustice. Of course, the Iranian nation in this incident has come out very strongly and it will be the same in the future.
Iran is experiencing the biggest unrest since the 2019 riots over rising fuel prices. Young people took to the streets at night or staged protests at universities during the day. Many protesters’ slogans are aimed at Khamenei, who holds ultimate power in the theocratic state, rather than hardline President Ebrahim Raisi.
The demonstrators, initially angry at the obligation to wear the hijab and the treatment of Amini, also demand the establishment of a democratic and secular system.
On Sunday evening, students from the prestigious Sharif University in Tehran staged a protest and demanded the release of students arrested while chanting anti-regime slogans. Security forces arrested more than 30 students on Sunday alone, the students said later in a statement. The university announced Monday that classes will be online only until further notice.
Western leaders expressed support for the protesters and criticized the regime’s crackdown.
US President Joe Biden said during his address to the UN General Assembly that his administration stands with “the brave citizens and brave women of Iran, who are protesting right now to secure their basic rights.” .
Khamenei said that “the same enemy [US] who says in her diplomatic comments that she has no intention of hitting Iran or changing the [political] system, maintains these intentions at the bottom and seeks to create riots and make the country insecure”.
He added: “Even if it had not been for the problem of this young girl, another pretext would have been found to create insecurity and riots in the country.”
Iran’s justice chief, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, pledged on Monday to deal with those who stoke the crisis now that “it has become clear that the Great Satan [the US] and the Zionists are leading the scene and training and equipping terrorists to threaten the security of Iranians”.