Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday issued a warning in first comments over protests in the country and declared that “rioters must be put in their place” after a week of agitations that have shaken the Islamic Republic.
At least 15 people have died in protests surrounded by violence across Iran sparked by the ailing economy.
The first remarks by the 86-year-old supreme leader came a day after US President Donald Trump warned that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come to their rescue.”
Responding to Trump’s warning, Khamenei said, “That ranting American sits there talking about the Iranian nation, spewing a combination of slander and promises. False promises! Deception!”.
While it remains unclear how and if Trump will intervene, his comments sparked counter, with Iranian side threatening to target American troops in the Mideast.
What Khamenei said
State television aired Khamenei’s remarks to an audience in Tehran that sought to separate the concerns of protesting Iranians upset about the rial’s collapse from “rioters.” Excerpts of remarks were also shared on his X handle.
“We talk to protesters, the officials must talk to them,” Khamenei said, according to an Associated Press report. “But there is no benefit to talking to rioters. Rioters must be put in their place.”
He also reiterated a claim constantly made by officials in Iran that foreign powers like Israel or the United States were fueling the protests, without offering any evidence. Khamenei blamed “the enemy” for Iran’s collapsing rial.
“A bunch of people incited or hired by the enemy are getting behind the tradesmen and shopkeepers and chanting slogans against Islam, Iran and the Islamic Republic… This is what matters most,” he reportedly said.
Two deaths were reported on Saturday. In Qom, home to the country’s major Shiite seminaries, a grenade exploded, killing a man, the AP report mentioned, citing state-owned IRAN newspaper.
The IRAN newspaper quoted security officials alleging the man was carrying the grenade to attack people in the city, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of the capital, Tehran.
Online videos from Qom purportedly showed fires in the street overnight.
The second death was reported from the town of Harsin, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) southwest of Tehran. A member of the Basij, the all-volunteer arm of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, died in a gun and knife attack in the town in Kermanshah province, according to the newspaper.
