The supreme chief calls the anti-government protests, which started after the dying of Mahsa Amini, ‘riots’.
Tehran, Iran – Iran’s supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has blamed america and Israel for protests which have gripped the nation for greater than two weeks, accusing the nations of attempting to cease Iran’s “progress”.
Khamenei on Monday branded the anti-government protests, among the largest the nation has seen in years, as “riots”.
The 83-year-old chief had remained silent on the protests, which erupted after a 22-year-old Kurdish girl, Mahsa Amini, died final month within the custody of Iran’s morality police.
“I say explicitly that these riots and this insecurity have been a design by the US and the occupying, faux Zionist regime [Israel] and those that are paid by them, and a few traitorous Iranians overseas helped them,” Khamenei instructed graduating cadets at a police college in Tehran.
“Within the accident that occurred, a younger girl handed away, which additionally pained us, however reactions to her dying earlier than investigations [take place] … when some come to make the streets insecure, burn Qurans, take hijabs off coated ladies, and burn mosques and other people’s vehicles – they’re not a traditional, pure response,” Khamenei stated whereas surrounded by the chiefs of the police, military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Khamenei sought to additional forged the unrest as a part of a international effort to destabilise Iran, saying one other “excuse” would have been discovered to destabilise the nation if it weren't for Amini’s dying.
Iran’s supreme chief argued that the unrest was an try to cease the nation from the advances he stated it had made regardless of harsh US sanctions imposed since 2018 when Washington unilaterally deserted Iran’s 2015 nuclear cope with world powers.
“They really feel that the nation is progressing in the direction of full-scale energy and so they can’t tolerate this,” Khamenei stated.
The US is alleged to be contemplating additional sanctions on Iran in mild of the protests, which have led to the deaths of dozens of individuals. It has eased some web sanctions on Iran to attempt to assist Iranians circumvent authorities restrictions on the web imposed for the reason that protests started.
Ethnic stress
In his speech, Khamenei alluded to unrest amongst Iran’s ethnic Kurdish and Baluch populations however argued that Iran wouldn't be divided alongside ethnic strains.
“I've lived amongst ethnic Baluchis and they're deeply loyal to the Islamic Republic,” Khamenei stated. “The ethnic Kurds are additionally amongst probably the most superior teams in Iran who love their homeland, Islam and the institution.”
For greater than per week, the IRGC has continuously attacked positions within the Kurdish area of northern Iraq, to the northwest of Iran, the place it says “terrorist” teams are based mostly. The federal government has sought to current the protests as serving secessionist objectives.
A September 28 assault on northern Iraq by the IRGC, which used missiles and drones, killed a minimum of 13 folks.
Within the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, a lethal shoot-out killed a minimum of 20 folks within the metropolis of Zahedan final week.
Authorities stated the firefight got here after members of a “terrorist” secessionist group launched an assault that additionally killed a number of IRGC and Basij paramilitary members.
In the meantime, various feminine protesters have been filmed burning their hijabs or reducing their hair, making the hijab one of many principal themes of the protests.
Regardless of that, Khamenei argued that the hijab shouldn't be the central concern.
“Lots of the individuals who don’t have full hijab are among the many severe supporters of the Islamic Republic and take part in numerous occasions. The difficulty is over the independence, resilience, strengthening and the ability of Islamic Iran,” the supreme chief stated.
As for the protesters themselves, Khamenei painted a lot of them as misguided – and stated they might be made to know that that they had made a “mistake” by “punishing” them, with out elaborating.
Feedback by main athletes and artists in assist of the protests additionally attracted Khamenei’s consideration, with the Iranian supreme chief saying that those that had spoken out represented solely a minority of Iran’s sports activities and creative group.
At the very least two footballers and a musician who expressed assist for the protests have been arrested final week.
Native media reported on Monday that the pinnacle coach and various gamers from Persepolis FC, one in every of Iran’s largest soccer golf equipment, have been “summoned to a safety entity” to debate their on-line exercise referring to the protests.
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