Khamenei: US behind Iran unrest
Shafaq News– Tehran/ Washington
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday accused the United States of orchestrating unrest in the country as protests continued across Iran, including in the capital Tehran.
Speaking at a ceremony in Tehran, Khamenei said a group he described as “rioters” was trying to please US President Donald Trump by vandalizing public property. “Saboteurs came to Tehran only to destroy and to satisfy the American president.”
Khamenei warned that Iran would not tolerate what he called mercenaries working for foreign powers. “If the Iranian people remain united, they will bring down their enemies,” he said, adding that efforts to undermine the country through unrest would fail.
His remarks came a day after Trump warned Iran against using lethal force against demonstrators, saying the United States would respond “very hard” if protesters were killed. Khamenei dismissed the warning, telling the US president to “focus on his own country’s problems,” and accusing Washington of having “hands stained with the blood of thousands of Iranians” during the 12-day conflict in June 2025 involving Iran, Israel, and the United States, which struck Iranian nuclear facilities.
The protests began in late December after a sharp fall in the rial drove up prices. The currency slid to about 1.45 million to the dollar in December 2025, while annual inflation reached roughly 52%, according to market and official data. President Masoud Pezeshkian has acknowledged the economic roots of the unrest and said the government would seek to ease pressure on citizens.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has reported demonstrations at nearly 300 locations across 111 cities in all 31 provinces, leaving at least 35 people dead, including police officers, and more than 2,000 arrested.
Iranian authorities have not released official casualty figures.
Internet monitoring group NetBlocks reported near-total nationwide outages on Thursday affecting Tehran and several provinces, while several Iranian news agency websites remain inaccessible.
Read more: Iran’s protests between economic crisis and political contestation
