Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Iranian leader slams ‘enemies’
Khamenei suggests foreign meddling sparked unrest
TEHRAN, Iran — Breaking his silence over nationwide protests that included calls for his ouster, Iran’s supreme leader on Tuesday blamed the demonstrations on “enemies of Iran,” saying they were meddling in its internal affairs.
The remarks by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the demonstrations — the largest seen in Iran since its disputed 2009 presidential election — came after a bloody night that saw protesters try to storm a police station and the first deaths among its security forces. The unrest has killed at least 21 people.
The protests began Dec. 28 in Mashhad over the weak economy and a jump in food prices. They have since expanded to cities and towns in nearly every province. Hundreds have been arrested, and a prominent judge warned that some could face the death penalty.
Speaking to chador-clad women who were relatives of veterans and war dead, Khamenei, 78, warned of an enemy “waiting for an opportunity, for a crack through which it can infiltrate.”
“Look at the recent days’ incidents,” he said. “All those who are at odds with the Islamic Republic have utilized various means, including money, weapons, politics and (the) intelligence apparatus, to create problems for the Islamic system, the Islamic Republic and the Islamic Revolution.”
Khamenei avoided identifying any foreign countries, although he promised to elaborate in the coming days. Undoubtedly high on his list is the U.S., where President Donald Trump has tweeted his support for the protests for several days.
On Tuesday, he wrote that “the people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime.”
“All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their ‘pockets,’ ” Trump wrote, apparently referring to the nuclear deal reached under his predecessor. “The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!”
It is unclear what effect Trump’s tweets are having on the protests. Iran’s state TV reported on his tweets in its news broadcasts, and some people have shared them online, but many in Iran distrust him because he has refused to re-certify the 2015 nuclear deal, and his travel bans have blocked Iranians from getting U.S. visas.
The U.S. called for the U.N. Security Council and U.N. Human Rights Council to hold emergency meetings on Iran, with the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations saying the world body “must speak” on the issue.
“Nowhere is the urgency of peace, security and freedom being tested more than in Iran,” U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said, adding that U.S. officials “applaud the tremendous courage of the Iranian people.”
Haley said the U.S. would be calling for emergency sessions in the coming days.
Gulf Arab nations have been watching the protests carefully, with Saudifunded satellite channels in particular playing up the unrest. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, long a foe, has praised the protesters.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the exiled opposition group known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq was inciting the violence. According to his website, Rouhani spoke by telephone with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and urged France to stop hosting the group, which fled after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The protests began over the economy, which has improved since the nuclear deal that saw Iran agree to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the end of some international sanctions.
Yet unemployment remains high, and official inflation has crept up to 10 percent again. A recent increase in egg and poultry prices by as much as 40 percent, which the government has blamed on a cull over avian flu fears, appears to have sparked the protests.
Analysts suggest conservatives pushed protesters forward as a way to challenge Rouhani, a relatively moderate cleric whose administration struck the nuclear deal. The apparently leaderless protests, fanned in part by a messaging app called Telegram, then grew to include violent confrontations, analysts say.
The government has since shut down access to Telegram and the photosharing app Instagram, which now join Facebook and Twitter in being banned.
The Trump administration called on Iran’s government to stop blocking Instagram and other popular social media sites.
Early Tuesday, state TV reported rioters tried to break into a police station in the town of Qahdarijan to steal guns, leading to clashes that killed six people. Two more were killed in the town of Khomeinishahr, while a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and a police officer were killed in Najafabad, according to local media.