Iran’s Khamenei calls for ‘rioters’ to be put in their place as protests rage

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that “rioters must be put in their place,” in his first comments on weekslong protests that have shaken the Islamic Republic amid economic unrest.

State television aired the remarks to an audience in Tehran, with Khamenei calling for officials to talk with protesters while drawing a sharp line between protesters and “rioters.” “We talk to protesters, the officials must talk to them,” he said, adding that “there is no benefit to talking to rioters.” He later said “rioters must be put in their place.”

Khamenei also reiterated a claim frequently made by Iranian officials that foreign powers, including Israel or the United States, are pushing the protests. He blamed “the enemy” for Iran’s collapsing rial, saying: “A bunch of people incited or hired by the enemy are getting behind the tradesmen and shopkeepers and chanting slogans against Islam, Iran and the Islamic Republic.” He added: “This is what matters most.”

The AP report said the first comments by Khamenei come as violence around the demonstrations sparked by Iran’s ailing economy has killed at least 15 people, according to human rights activists. The protests have shown no signs of stopping, and the unrest has been fueled by anger over economic conditions as the rial has collapsed.

The remarks followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s Friday warning to Iran, which the AP report said included a threat of U.S. action if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” adding that the United States “will come to their rescue.” The report said the U.S. warning sparked an immediate, angry response from officials within Iran’s theocracy, with threats to target American troops in the Middle East.

The AP report also noted that Khamenei’s comments arrive amid ongoing political pressure inside Iran. It said hard-line officials were believed to have pushed for a more-aggressive response as President Masoud Pezeshkian sought talks to address protesters’ demands. It described Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, including the all-volunteer Basij force, whose members have violently put down past unrest and whose chain of command answers only to Khamenei.

Violence reported overnight included two separate incidents. In Qom, the state-owned IRAN newspaper reported that a grenade explosion killed a man and quoted security officials alleging he was carrying the grenade to attack people in the city of Qom, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Tehran. Online videos from Qom purportedly showed street fires overnight. In Harsin, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) southwest of Tehran, the newspaper said a member of the Basij died in a gun and knife attack.

The AP report said protest-related deaths and detentions were reported by multiple rights groups and news agencies with differing counts. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported early Sunday that demonstrations had reached over 170 locations in 25 of Iran’s 31 provinces, with the death toll at least 15 and over 580 arrests. The state-run IRNA separately reported violence in Malekshahi County in Iran’s Ilam province but offered no specific details. Hengaw and the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group put the death toll at four in Malekshahi and accused Iranian security forces of opening fire on demonstrators.

Fars, a semiofficial news agency believed to be close to the Revolutionary Guard, alleged without offering evidence that demonstrators carried firearms and grenades. The AP report said firearms are more prevalent in western Iran, along the border with Iraq, but that there had been no clear evidence provided by the government supporting allegations that demonstrators were armed.

The protests, the AP report said, have taken root in economic issues, with demonstrators chanting against Iran’s theocracy. The report said Tehran has struggled to stabilize its economy since a June war involving Israel in which the U.S. also bombed Iranian nuclear sites. It added that Iran recently said it was no longer enriching uranium at any site in the country, trying to signal openness to negotiations over its atomic program to ease sanctions, but that talks had yet to happen as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran against reconstituting its atomic program.