Iran

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday called U.S. President Donald Trump a “criminal” for supporting protesters in Iran and blamed the protesters for causing thousands of deaths.

In a speech broadcast on state television, Khamenei said the protests had left “several thousand” people dead, the first indication from an Iranian leader of the scale of casualties from the wave of protests that began on Dec. 28 and led to a bloody crackdown.

“In this revolt, the American president made comments in person, encouraging the seditionists to move forward and saying, ‘We support you, we support you militarily,’” said Khamenei, who has the final say in all state affairs. He reiterated the accusation that the United States seeks to dominate Iran’s economic and political resources.

“We consider the president of the United States a criminal, because of the casualties and damage, because of the accusations against the Iranian nation,” he said. He described the protesters as “foot soldiers” of the United States and said they had destroyed mosques and educational centers. “By hurting people, they killed several thousand of them,” he said.

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Trump had adopted a conciliatory tone

His comments come a day after Trump struck a conciliatory tone, saying that “Iran canceled the hanging of over 800 people” and adding that “I have a lot of respect for the fact that they canceled.” He did not clarify who he spoke to in Iran to confirm the status of the planned executions. His comments were a sign that he may be backing down from a military attack.

In recent days, Trump had told protesting Iranians that “help is on the way” and that his administration would “act accordingly” if the killings of protesters continued or if Iranian authorities executed detained protesters.

In his speech, Khamenei said the rioters were armed with live ammunition imported from abroad, without naming any country.

“We do not plan, we do not take the country to war. But we do not release domestic criminals, worse than domestic criminals, there are international criminals. We also do not leave them alone,” he said, urging officials to continue with the cases.

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An eerie calm

Iran has returned to an uneasy calm after the harsh crackdown on protests that began on December 28 over Iran’s weakened economy. The crackdown has left at least 3,090 people dead, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activist News Agency, surpassing that of any other round of protests or unrest in Iran in decades and reminiscent of the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution.

The agency has been accurate throughout the years of protests, relying on a network of activists inside Iran that confirms all reported deaths. The AP has not been able to independently confirm the number of victims.

Iranian officials have repeatedly accused the United States and Israel of fomenting unrest in the country. On Friday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused the United States and Israel of meddling in the unrest.

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Limited Internet Access Reports Reset Briefly

There have been no signs of protests for days in Tehran, where shopping and street life have returned to normal, and Iranian state media has reported no new unrest.

During the unrest, authorities blocked all Internet access on January 8. On Saturday, text messaging and very limited internet services briefly began working again in some parts of Iran, witnesses said.

Text messaging via mobile phones went live overnight, while users were able to access local websites through a national Internet service. Some also reported limited access to international Internet services through the use of a virtual private network, or VPN.

The extent of the access and what was behind it was not immediately known. It was possible that officials were activating some systems for the start of the Iranian work week, as the disruption has hit businesses, particularly the country’s banks trying to handle transactions.

Internet traffic monitoring service Cloudflare and Internet access advocacy group NetBlocks reported very slight increases in connectivity on Saturday morning, while Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency also reported limited Internet access. He did not offer an explanation.

Exiled Iranian royals call for more protests

There has been no sign of protests for days in Tehran, where shopping and street life have returned to normal. Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s call for protesters to take to the streets again from Saturday to Monday did not appear to have been heeded Saturday afternoon.

Pahlavi, whose father was overthrown by Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, enjoys support from staunch monarchists in the diaspora but has struggled to gain wider appeal within Iran. However, that has not stopped him from presenting himself as Iran’s transitional leader should the government fall.