Protesters 'Ruining Own Streets&#8217 To Please Trump: Iran Leader

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer) Tehran: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei signalled Friday that security forces would crack down on saboteurs, directly challenging US President Donald Trump's pledge to support ant-government protesters inside Iran.

Iran leader dismissed Trump as having hands“stained with the blood of Iranians” as supporters shouted“Death to America!” in footage aired by Iranian state television.

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Protesters are“ruining their own streets... in order to please the president of the United States,” Ayatollah Khamenei said to a crowd at his compound in Tehran.“Because he said that he would come to their aid. He should pay attention to the state of his own country instead.”

Iran's judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei separately vowed that punishment for what he described as foreign backed rioters“will be decisive, maximum and without any legal leniency.”

There was no immediate response from Washington, though Trump has repeated his pledge to strike Iran if protesters are killed, a threat that's taken on greater significance after the US military raid that seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Internet cut off

Despite Iranian authorities restricting access to internet, short online videos aired by Western backed Persian sattelite channels purported to show protesters chanting against Islamic Republic around bonfires as debris littered the streets in some areas into Friday morning.

Iranian state media alleged“terrorist agents” of the US and Israel set fires and sparked violence. It also said there were“casualties,” without elaborating.

The full scope of the protests couldn't be determined due to the communications blackout, though it represented yet another escalation in protests that began over Iran's ailing economy and that has morphed into the most significant challenge to the government in several years. The protests have intensified steadily since beginning December 28.

The protests also represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by fugitive Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose father Raza Pahavi fled Iran just before the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Pahlavi has been calling for protests with backing from Western governments and the US, whose crippling sanctions have contributed to Iran's currency decline.

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State TV reported the protests saw violence that caused casualties but did not elaborate. It also said the protests saw“people's private cars, motorcycles, public places such as the metro, fire trucks and buses set on fire.” State TV later reported that violence overnight killed six people in Hamedan, some 280 kilometres southwest of Tehran.

Iranian officials have acknowledged the legitimacy of economic grievances raised by peaceful protesters and have vowed to address them, while emphasizing a clear distinction between lawful assembly and foreign-instigated violence.

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