"Let all friends and foes know that we pushed back the enemy in the recent security war," Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared in a speech Nov. 19. Khamenei was referring to a wave of deadly demonstrations that has gripped the Islamic Republic since last Friday after an overnight announcement of higher gasoline prices and a contentious rationing scheme.
The protests, according to Khamenei, were not the "people's job" but a "security" conspiracy now thwarted. The 80-year-old leader added that his country will experience the same victory in the "economic war" — a recurrent term in Iranian official discourse describing US sanctions that have drastically dwindled ordinary Iranians' purchasing power.