Ali Khamenei reappears after weeks of repression and confirms that there have been thousands of deaths in the protests

Following these figures, the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Jameneihas reappeared and blamed Donald Trumpclassifying him as a “criminal” for “the casualties, damage and slander he inflicted on the Iranian nation”, during a religious ceremony that took place this Saturday in Tehran.

Khamenei assured that the protests that have shaken the country “were a American plot and its objective is to devour Iran.”

“The particularity of the recent plot is that the president of the United States himself intervened personally: he spoke, threatened and, encouraging the conspirators, sent them the message to advance, not to be afraid and that they had our military support,” he said.

In addition to blaming EEthe Iranian leader blames Israelconsidering both countries as “historical enemies” of the country for inciting violence.

“Those linked to Israel and the United States caused massive damage and killed thousands of people,” he said, adding, as indicated Reuters, who started fires, destroyed public property and incited chaos. “They committed crimes and serious slander”he stated.

The politician also stressed that during these revolts there were “extremely inhuman actssuch as locking up and burning young people alive in mosques, and murdering girls and defenseless men and women, with weapons supplied from abroad.

In addition to the lives lost, Khamenei has caused 250 mosques, more than 250 educational and scientific centers to be destroyed, and damage to electricity sector facilities, banks, health complexes and basic product stores.

Origin of the revolts

Las Mobilizations broke out on December 28 due to the economic difficulties that the country was experiencing due to the fall of the Iranian rial.

It all started when numerous merchants in the capital, Tehran, closed their businesses in protest. This action expanded nationwide, accompanied by cries of “Death to the Islamic Republic” y “Death to Khamenei”.

The protests expanded until Thursday, January 8 and Friday, January 9, reached their peak with an explosion of demonstrations throughout virtually all of Iran, which led to acts of vandalism against public organizations, banks that were destroyed, and the burning of 53 mosques throughout the country, according to the official version of the Iranian Government.

Tehran maintains that the economic protests turned violent due to the infiltration of external agents supported by Israel and the United States to justify a military intervention by Washington, which has not occurred until now.

Trump threatened to attack the Persian country if more people died when the death count was seven and later stated that “help is on the way,” which many interpreted as a warning to intervene in the Islamic Republic.

But in a social media post on Friday, he thanked Tehran’s leaders, saying they had canceled the mass hangings. Iran stated that “there was no no plan to hang anyone“.

In comments that appeared to respond to Trump, Khamenei said: “We will not drag the country into warbut we will not allow national or international criminals to go unpunished,” according to different state media.