Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday said authorities “must break the back of the seditionists” and blamed US President Donald Trump for “casualties” after the Islamic Republic’s bloody crackdown on a protest wave against the country’s clerical authorities.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly blamed the US for the mass demonstrations they have called “riots” and “terrorist” operations. Trump had threatened to strike Iran if it did not stop killing protesters, but starting Wednesday sounded a more conciliatory tone, saying he was assured the killings would stop.
In a speech broadcast by state television to mark a religious holiday, Khamenei on Saturday said the protests had left “several thousand” people dead — the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the casualties from the wave of protests that began December 28.
“In this revolt, the US president made remarks in person, encouraged seditious people to go ahead and said: ‘We do support you, we do support you militarily,’” said Khamenei.
“We do consider the US president a criminal, because of casualties and damages, because of accusations against the Iranian nation,” Khamenei said. He described the protesters as “foot soldiers” of the United States and said they had destroyed mosques and educational centers.
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“This was an American conspiracy,” he said, adding that “America’s goal is to swallow Iran… the goal is to put Iran back under military, political and economic domination.”
US President Donald Trump arrives at a dedication ceremony for a portion of Southern Boulevard, which the Town of Palm Beach Council recently voted to rename ‘President Donald J. Trump Boulevard,’ January 16, 2026, at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
“Through hurting people, they killed several thousand of them,” he said. “By God’s grace, the Iranian nation must break the back of the seditionists just as it broke the back of the sedition.”
“We do not release domestic offenders. Worse than domestic offenders, there are international offenders. We do not let them alone either,” he said, urging officials to pursue the cases.
“We do not plan, we do not take the country toward war,” said Khamenei.
In his speech, Khamenei claimed protesters were armed with live ammunition that was imported from abroad, without naming any countries.
In this photo obtained by The Associated Press, Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, January 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
Iran has returned to an uneasy calm after harsh repression of protests that began December 28 over Iran’s ailing economy, and exploded into a mass movement demanding the country’s clerical regime be dismantled.
The crackdown, carried out under an internet blackout, has left at least 3,090 people dead, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
The toll, which cannot be independently verified, exceeded that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalled the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution that heralded the Islamic Republic.
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