Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei blamed ‘foreign enemies’ for fuelling and exploiting the unrest. Photo / Getty Images
Iran’s top leader has acknowledged the unrest sweeping the country and offered to speak to protesters.
In a rare move, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei distinguished between legitimate demonstrators and “rioters” – in his first public comments since the protests began last weekend in Tehran.
“Protest is justified, but protest is different from rioting,” he said. “We talk with protesters, but talking with rioters is useless. Rioters must be put in their place.”
It came as Iranian security forces killed at least three more people hours after Donald Trump, the United States President, threatened to intervene.
The deaths raised the toll to at least 10 since demonstrations over the country’s economic crisis began a week ago. The unrest has since evolved into anti-regime protests.
The offer to engage with demonstrators is a notable shift for the Islamic Republic, suggesting the weakened regime views the protests as a serious threat after several regional setbacks last year.
The demonstrations are the most significant challenge to Iran’s Government since 2022, when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody after being detained over allegedly improper hijab-wearing.
Those protests became more widespread and intense than the current unrest.
Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s President, said there was little he could do after a rapid depreciation in the rial, Iran’s currency, with Western sanctions blamed for the deteriorating economic situation.
Pezeshkian said that he would also personally speak to the protesters.
“If necessary, I will talk with the guilds myself,” he said. “If they are right somewhere and we have been at fault, we will try to correct ourselves.”
Meanwhile, a member of Iran’s Parliament also announced that a long-delayed “assembly and rally Bill” would soon be tabled for a vote.
The legislation would allow provincial authorities to designate specific locations where “various groups and classes can gather and express their demands”.
Videos circulating online have shown security forces confronting demonstrators in multiple cities. Protesters have attacked government offices, set police vehicles ablaze and removed national flags from regime buildings.
Human rights activists said at least 44 people had been wounded by live ammunition and pellet guns during the protests.
One protester died in Qom, home to prominent Shia seminaries, when a grenade exploded overnight.
Security officials claimed the man had been carrying the device to attack people in the city, though the allegation could not be independently verified.
Armed forces responded with violence, with videos showing riot police shooting at demonstrators, and angry men setting police vehicles on fire and chanting “death to the dictator”.
Women in several cities also joined the unrest as it entered its seventh day.
A video from central Tehran showed security forces violently dragging a protesting woman away from a street.
In western Harsin, a member of the Basij paramilitary force died from gunfire and knife wounds during clashes, according to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The killings came hours after Trump warned on his Truth Social network that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters”, the US would “come to their rescue”.
The US President wrote that America was “locked and loaded” and ready to act.
Iranian officials issued swift warnings following the threat. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, said all US troops and bases in the region would be “legitimate targets” if Washington did intervene.
Khamenei blamed “foreign enemies” for the instability of the rial and accused “mercenaries” of infiltrating merchant protests to chant anti-government slogans.
He said: “This rise in foreign currency prices, the uncontrolled increase in foreign currency, and its instability are not natural. This is the enemy’s work.
“Of course, it must be prevented. With various measures, they are trying, both the president and the heads of other branches, some other officials, they are trying to fix this.”
Demonstrations have occurred in more than 100 locations across 22 of Iran’s 31 provinces.
The protests began when shopkeepers in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar went on strike after the rial hit a record low.
Khamenei said: “The bazaar class is among the most loyal segments of the country to the Islamic Republic and the Islamic revolution. I know the bazaar well.
“One cannot oppose the Islamic Republic and the Islamic system in the name of the bazaar and bazaar merchants.”
The currency now trades at approximately 1.34 million rials per dollar. Annual inflation reached 42.2% in December, with food prices surging 72%.
Khamenei added: “The enemy’s work must be recognised. The enemy does not sit still and uses every opportunity. Here, they saw an opportunity and wanted to use it...
“Of course, our officials were in the field and will be. What matters is the totality of the nation ... What matters is not being indifferent to the enemy’s soft war, not being indifferent to the enemy’s rumour-mongering.”
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