Khamenei says Iran’s deadly petrol protests were a US conspiracy
Iran’s supreme leader has claimed recent protests across the Islamic Republic over government-set petrol prices rising were part of a “conspiracy” involving the US, as authorities began to acknowledge the scale of the demonstrations.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the comment while addressing members of the Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force, which help put down the demonstrations.
One lawmaker was quoted as saying authorities arrested more than 7,000 people over the protests while a security official claimed demonstrators attempted to take over Iranian state television.
Iran’s government still hasn’t offered any statistics on injuries, arrests or deaths in the protests and security crackdown that followed government-set petrol prices rising on 15 November. Amnesty International says it believes the violence killed at least 143 people, something Iran disputes.
Khamenei said the Iranian people extinguished “a very dangerous deep conspiracy that cost so much money and effort.”
He praised the police, the Guard and the Basij for “entering the field and carrying out their task in a very difficult confrontation.”
Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state, described the protests as being orchestrated by “global arrogance”, which he uses to refer to the US. He described America as seeing the price hikes as an “opportunity” to bring their “troops” to the field but the “move was destroyed by the people”.
Wednesday marks the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Basij. Videos from the protest purport to show plainclothes Basij officials and others on motorcycles beating and detaining protesters.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate within Iran’s ruling Shiite theocracy, similarly blamed America for the protests without offering evidence. He called violent protesters “mercenaries” and “hooligans”, alleging the US sent money over two years to spark the demonstrations.
“We achieved a great national victory against superpowers,” Rouhani said. “This great epic shows the power of our people.”
Meanwhile, the moderate news website Entekhab quoted Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, a member of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, as saying more than 7,000 people had been arrested in the demonstrations. He did not elaborate.
The petrol price hike came as Iran’s 80 million people have already seen their savings dwindle and jobs scarce under crushing US sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump after he pulled out of a nuclear arms treaty.