Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Tehran considers US President Donald Trump a criminal for causing casualties and damage to the Iranian people during anti-government protests. Khamenei also publicly admitted for the first time since the protests began that thousands of people had been killed, “some in inhuman and brutal ways.” This was reported by the Reuters agency and the BBC station. The protests broke out in late December, and Trump has repeatedly threatened the Iranian leadership with American intervention if it continues to kill protesters.
“The most recent rebellion was different in that the American president was personally involved in it,” Khamenei said, according to Reuters. He added that Trump is responsible for the casualties and damage he has caused to the Iranian nation. “Trump intervened in this rebellion and encouraged the rebels, he said he would provide them with military support,” Khamenei said, according to Iran International TV. “The Americans planned these events, their goal is to control Iran,” he added.
Khamenei had earlier called Trump arrogant during the demonstrations and told him to take care of problems in the United States.
Trump calls for regime change
US President Donald Trump spoke out for regime change in Iran on Saturday. He accused the Tehran government, which has admitted that thousands of people have been killed in the current protests, of using oppression and violence on an unprecedented scale. The head of the White House told Politico.
“It is time to look for new leadership in Iran,” Trump said. He said of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei: “What he did wrong as the leader of the country was to completely destroy the country and use violence on an unprecedented scale.” And he added: “For the country to function – even at a very low level – the leadership should focus on running the country properly, as I am doing with the United States, and not on killing thousands of people to maintain control.”
Last week, Trump told the Iranians on his social network Truth Social to continue their protests and seize the country’s institutions. He also said that help was on the way, without explaining to reporters what kind of help he meant. The White House chief also imposed a 25 percent tariff on countries trading with Iran this week.
On the Truth Social on Friday, Trump thanked the Iranian regime for not carrying out any of the more than 800 planned executions, but did not say where he got the information about the number of executions being planned. He told reporters that it was the cancellation of the executions that influenced his decision not to intervene militarily against Iran. According to some sources, however, Trump was forced to back off from intervention in Iran by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman, who are concerned that American military action would threaten the security of the region.
The demonstrations, initially economically motivated, broke out in Tehran in late December and soon spread across the country, turning into anti-regime protests. Some participants also called for the death of Khamenei or the return of the former crown prince and representative of the Iranian opposition, Reza Pahlavi, whose father was overthrown by the revolution in 1979. From exile, Pahlavi called on the protesters to persevere and promised to return to Iran. However, many Iranians are skeptical of any future larger role for Pahlavi, given his personality and his father’s authoritarian rule.
Iranian security forces have cracked down on the demonstrations with violence, and according to human rights organizations, at least 3,400 people have died. Thousands of people have been arrested by the regime for the demonstrations, according to the semi-official news agency Tasnim, 3,000 people have been detained, according to the Iranian human rights organization Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), based in the United States, more than 19,000 people have already been arrested.
We have updated the text with the statement of the American president on the leadership of Iran.
