Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blames US and Israel for Iran riots

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has accused the US and Israel of fomenting the wave of nationwide unrest.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran on Monday. Picture AFP

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has accused arch-foes the US and Israel of fomenting the wave of nationwide unrest sparked by outrage over the death of Mahsa Amini.

“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,” the Islamic republic’s leader said.

Amini, 22, died on September 16, days after the notorious ­morality police detained the Kurdish Iranian for allegedly breaching rules forcing women to wear hijab headscarves and modest clothes.

Anger over Amini’s death has sparked the biggest wave of protests to rock Iran in almost three years, with security forces in Tehran cracking down on hundreds of university students on Sunday night. At least 92 people have reportedly been killed in more than two weeks of protests.

The US said it was “alarmed and appalled by reports of security authorities responding to ­university students’ peaceful protests with violence and mass arrests”, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

In his first public comments on Amini’s death, 83-year-old Mr Khamenei stressed that police must “stand up to criminals”.

“The death of the young woman broke our hearts,” he said. “But what is not normal is that some people, without proof or an investigation, have made the streets dangerous, burned the Koran, removed hijabs from veiled women and set fire to mosques and cars”.

Mr Khamenei said “this is not about hijab in Iran”, and that “many Iranian women who don’t observe the hijab perfectly are among the steadfast supporters of the Islamic republic”.

Concern grew over a night-time crackdown on students at Tehran’s prestigious Sharif University of Technology where, local media reported, riot police carrying steel pellet guns used tear gas and paintball guns against hundreds of students.

Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights posted videos­ ­apparently showing police on motorcycles chasing students running through an underground car park and taking away detainees.

Iran has repeatedly accused outside forces of stoking the protests and last week said nine foreigners – including from France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Poland – had been arrested.

AFP