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Iran protests: Supreme leader breaks silence on protests, accuses US and Israel of stoking 'riots'

In his first public comment on the nationwide protests, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamene described Kurdish Iranian Amini’s death “a sad incident” that “left us heartbroken”. Amini was pronounced dead on September 16, days after the notorious morality police detained her for allegedly breaching rules forcing women to wear hijab headscarves and modest clothes.

TN World Desk

Updated Oct 3, 2022, 16:24 IST

“Such actions are not normal, are unnatural,” Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.

Photo : AP

Dubai: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday broke silence on the biggest protests in the nation in years as he condemned the violent rioting and accuses protests of being planned by the United States and Israel.

His remarks came amid nationwide protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police. The stirs have entered their third week despite the government’s efforts to crack down.

In his first public comment on the unrest, the supreme leader described Kurdish Iranian Amini’s death “a sad incident” that “left us heartbroken”.

However, he sharply condemned the protests as a foreign plot to destabilise Iran, echoing authorities’ previous comments.

“This rioting was planned,” he told a cadre of police students in Tehran. “I say clearly that these riots and the insecurity were engineered by America and the occupying, false Zionist regime, as well as their paid agents, with the help of some traitorous Iranians abroad,” he said.

“Such actions are not normal, are unnatural,” he added.

Amini was pronounced dead on September 16, days after the notorious morality police detained her for allegedly breaching rules forcing women to wear hijab headscarves and modest clothes.

Outrage over her death has sparked the biggest wave of protests to rock the Islamic republic in almost three years, as well as global solidarity rallies that saw people take to the streets in more than 150 cities at the weekend, with many symbolically cutting off their hair.

As protests stretch into the third week, ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday said that the "enemies" of Iran had "failed in their conspiracy".

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