Iran's Supreme Leader Breaks Silence on Protests, Baselessly Accusing US and Israel of Planning Riots
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he was “heartbroken” by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran's morality police, but also sharply condemned the ongoing protests as a foreign plot to destabilize Iran
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Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei attends the joint graduation ceremony of armed forces cadets at Imam Hussein Military University in Tehran, Iran on October 3, 2022.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded publicly on Monday to the biggest protests in Iran in years, breaking weeks of silence to condemn what he called “rioting” and accuse the U.S. and Israel of planning the protests.
Khamenei said he was “heartbroken” by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran's morality police, which set off the nationwide protests. However, he sharply condemned the protests as a foreign plot to destabilize Iran, echoing authorities' previous comments.
“This rioting was planned,” he told a cadre of police students in Tehran. “These riots and insecurities were designed by America and the Zionist regime, and their employees.”
He described scenes of protestors ripping off their state-mandated headscarves and setting fire to mosques, banks and police cars as “not normal" and “unnatural.”
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His comments come as nationwide protests sparked by Amini's death entered a third week despite the government’s efforts to crack down.
Iran's state TV has reported the death toll from violent clashes between protesters and the security officers could be as high as 41, without providing details. Rights groups have given higher death tallies, with London-based Amnesty International saying it has identified 52 victims, including five women and at least five children.
An untold number of people have been apprehended, with local officials reporting at least 1,500 arrests.
Authorities have repeatedly blamed foreign countries and exiled opposition groups for fanning the unrest, without providing evidence.
The protests over Amini’s death have tapped into a deep well of grievances in Iran, including the country's surging prices, high unemployment, social restrictions and political repression. Demonstrations have continued in Tehran and far-flung provinces even as authorities have restricted internet access to the outside world and blocked social media apps.
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A protester holds a portrait of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman who died after being arrested in Tehran by the Islamic Republic’s morality police, in Istanbul, Sept. 20, 2022. Amini, 22, was on a visit with her family to the Iranian capital when she was detained by the police unit responsible for enforcing Iran’s strict dress code for women, including the wearing of the hijab in public.
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Iranian demonstrators take to the streets of Tehran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in police custody, Sept. 21, 2022.
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Iranian demonstrators take to the streets of Tehran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in police custody, Sept. 21, 2022.
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Nasibe Samsaei, an Iranian woman living in Turkey, cuts off her ponytail during a protest outside the Iranian consulate in Istanbul, Sept. 21, 2022, following the death of an Iranian woman after her arrest by the country’s morality police in Tehran.
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Iranians wave the Iranian national flag as they march during a pro-hijab rally in Tehran Sept. 23, 2022.
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A man cuts his hair during a demonstration in support of Mahsa Amini in front of the Iranian embassy in Brussels, Sept. 23, 2022, following the death of an Iranian woman after her arrest by the country’s morality police in Tehran.
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A protester cuts her hair during a protest in the front of the Iranian embassy in Brussels, Sept. 23, 2022. Protests in Iran and beyond continue in wake of Mahsa Amini’s death while in Iranian police custody. Amini, 22, was arrested for violating the country’s religious dress code for women.
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Demonstrators protest the death of Iranian Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police, outside the European Commission representative office, in Athens, Greece, Sept. 24, 2022.
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People gather in protest against the death of Mahsa Amini, Sept. 24, 2022, in Rome, Italy. Iranian Mahsa Amini fell into a coma and died after being arrested in Tehran by the morality police, for allegedly violating the country’s strict religious dress codes for women.
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A man waves a Kurdish flag as he sits upon the shoulders of another during a demonstration denouncing the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini – who died while in the custody of Iranian authorities – outside the United Nations’ offices in Arbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, Sept. 24, 2022.
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A woman cuts her hair during a demonstration in Sergels Torg in Stockholm, Sweden, Sept. 24, 2022, following the death of an Iranian woman after her arrest by the country’s morality police in Tehran.
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Iranian pro-government protesters burn the flags of the United States, Israel and Britain during a rally against the recent anti-government protests in Tehran, Sept. 25, 2022. Iran’s judiciary chief vowed no leniency against the wave of unrest that has rocked the country since the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish Iranian, while in the custody of the country’s morality police.
Vahid Salemi/AP
Pro-government demonstrators wave Iranian flags during their rally condemning recent anti-government protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by the nation’s morality police, in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 25, 2022.
Jeff Amy/AP
Iranian Americans gather in support of Iranian protesters, Sept. 25, 2022, in Atlanta. The demonstration comes amid violent unrest in Iran triggered by the death of a young woman in police custody.
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A protester holds a banner reading “This is the image of my people. Carry the voice of the Iranians” as she stands in front of riot police during a demonstration in support of Iranian protesters in Paris, Sept. 25, 2022.
Alastair Grant/AP
Demonstrators protest outside the Iranian Embassy in London, Sept. 25, 2022. Protests in Iran and beyond were sparked by the death of Kurdish Iranian Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in Iran after she was arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating its strictly-enforced dress code.
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Women protest over the death of 22-year-old Iranian Mahsa Amini in front of the Iranian Consulate on Sept. 26, 2022 in Istanbul. Amini’s death has sparked weeks of violent protests across Iran.
As the new academic year began this week, students gathered in protest at universities across Iran, according to videos widely shared on social media, chanting slogans against the government and denouncing security forces’ clampdown on demonstrators.
Universities in major cities including Isfahan in central Iran, Mashhad in the northeast and Kermanshah in the west have held protests featuring crowds of students clapping, chanting and burning state-mandated headscarves.
“Don’t call it a protest, it’s a revolution now,” shouted students at Shahid Beheshti University in the capital of Tehran, as women took off their hijabs and set them alight, in protest over Iran’s law requiring women to cover their hair.
“Students are awake, they hate the leadership!” chanted crowds of students at the University of Mazandaran in the country’s north.
