Iran’s supreme leader breaks silence on protests
While Iranian officials acknowledge economic grievances of protesters, they meanwhile claim foreigners are provoking unrest.
As Iran experiences the sixth day of nationwide protests, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed the ongoing unrest. During his weekly meeting Jan. 2 with the families of those killed in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, Khamenei said that enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran are using the protests to strike a blow against the government.
“In the events of the last few days, enemies of Iran with various tools at their disposal, such as money, arms, politics and security apparatuses, have allied to create problems for the Islamic Republic,” Khamenei said. As for the cause of the protests, Khamenei noted, “I have some things to say about these matters, and I will speak to the people about them.”
Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, also weighed in on Iran’s protests. “The domestic situation is the lack of approval of a part of the nation over the economic situation,” he said.
Shamkhani also pointed the finger at foreign powers for interfering in the country’s domestic affairs and stirring unrest, saying that a proxy war was taking place against Iran by Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom. “They are trying to collapse the nation from within,” Shamkhani said, adding that 27% of the hashtags related to the Iran protests are originating from Saudi Arabia, whom he has accused of hiring foreigners to undertake the task. Shamkhani also warned Saudi Arabia against getting involved in Iran’s internal affairs.
