Foreign ‘enemies’ blamed for Iran unrest as nine more die in clashes
IRAN’S supreme leader has blamed the protests racking his country on “enemies of Iran” who he said were meddling in its internal affairs.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s first public remarks since the demonstrations began came as state television reported that overnight clashes between protesters and security forces had killed another nine people.
The demonstrations, the largest in Iran since its disputed 2009 presidential election, have brought six days of unrest across the country and resulted in at least 21 deaths.
The protests began on Thurs“All day in Mashhad over Iran’s weak economy and a rise in food prices.
They have since expanded to several cities, with some protesters chanting against the government and the Ayatollah.
Hundreds of people have been arrested and a prominent judge has warned that some could face the death penalty.
In comments posted to his official website, the Ayatollah appeared to blame foreign nations for exacerbating the unrest.
“In the recent days’ incidents, enemies of Iran utilised various means — including money, weapons, politics and intelligence apparatuses — to create problems for the Islamic system,” he said.
Iranian leaders often accuse the US, Israel and Britain of seeking to overthrow the clerically overseen government.
State TV reported that six people were killed during an attack on a police station in the town of Qahdarijan in clashes sparked by rioters who tried to steal guns from the station.
TV reports also said an 11-year-old boy and a 20-yearold man were killed in the town of Khomeinishahr, while a member of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was killed in the town of Najafabad.
The towns are all in Iran’s central Isfahan province, some 215 miles south of Tehran.
The semi-official Mehr news agency said an assailant using a hunting rifle killed a policeman and wounded three others in Najafabad.
President Hassan Rouhani has acknowledged the public’s anger over the flagging economy, which has benefited from his signature 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, but not in a way that has brought immediate gains for most Iranians.
Mr Rouhani and others have warned that the government will crack down on those it considers lawbreakers. None of the protest rallies have received permission from the Interior Ministry, making them illegal.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday wrote on Twitter that “the people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime”.
of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their ‘pockets’,” Mr Trump wrote, apparently referring to the nuclear deal reached under his predecessor.
“The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The US is watching!”
The head of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court reportedly warned on Tuesday that arrested protesters could face the death penalty when they are put on trial.
“Obviously one of their charges can be Moharebeh,” or waging war against God, the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Mousa Ghazanfarabadi as saying.
Moharebeh is punishable by death in Iran.