While President Donald Trump appears to have backed away from a military action against Tehran, Iran’s leadership is taunting him and promising to intensify the crackdown.
On Saturday, Iran’s ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called President Trump a “criminal” and blamed him for the weeks-long protests. “We hold the American president guilty for the casualties, damages and accusations he has levelled against the Iranian nation,” Khamenei told his supporters during a televised address.
Khamenei called the ongoing nationwide uprising “an American conspiracy,” telling the regime forces to “break the back” of the anti-regime opposition.
In recent weeks, President Trump has repeatedly warned the regime, vowing “very strong action” if it goes ahead with executing protesters. But on Friday, he thanked the regime in a statement, assuring that Tehran had halted planned mass public executions.
Reuters reported Khamenei’s remarks:
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday blamed President Donald Trump for weeks of demonstrations that rights groups said have led to more than 3,000 deaths.”We consider the U.S. president criminal for the casualties, damages and slander he inflicted on the Iranian nation,” Khamenei said, according to Iranian state media. (…)In comments that appeared to respond to Trump, Khamenei said: “We will not drag the country into war, but we will not let domestic or international criminals go unpunished,” state media reported.Iran’s ultimate authority Khamenei said “several thousand deaths” had happened during the nationwide protests, which are Iran’s worst unrest in years. He accused Iran’s longtime enemies the U.S. and Israel of organising the violence.”Those linked to Israel and the U.S. caused massive damage and killed several thousand,” he said, adding that they started fires, destroyed public property and incited chaos. They “committed crimes and a grave slander,” he said.
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian regime official, on Saturday, rejected the president’s assertion that the regime had “cancelled” 800 executions. “Trump always talks a lot of nonsense,” Tehran’s Prosecutor General, Ali Salehi, said. “Our response is firm, deterrent, and swift, and a large number of our cases have now resulted in indictments being issued and have been sent to court.”
On Friday, a senior cleric and regime official demanded the mass execution of jailed protesters.
According to the latest estimates, the regime forces had arrested around 20,000 people during the protests. The regime plans summary trials to put thousands of protesters to death, rights groups fear.
“Human rights organizations fear the number of people killed during protests in Iran could quickly rise as thousands of protesters now held in prisons and detention centers may be at imminent risk of execution,” Germany’s DW TV reported Wednesday.
The London-based Iran International news outlet reported:
Tehran’s Friday prayer leader Ahmad Khatami called for the execution of detained protesters and the arrest of anyone who supported the protests, delivering the remarks during his Friday sermon.Khatami, a hardline cleric appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader, accused protesters of acting on behalf of foreign powers, calling them “servants” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “soldiers of Trump.”“They should await a harsh retaliation from the government. Americans and Zionists should not expect peace,” Khatami said. “The demonstrators were servants of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and soldiers of Trump.”
President Trump, on Saturday, told Politico that it was time “for a new leadership in Iran.”
The news website reported:
President Donald Trump on Saturday called for an end to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s 37-year reign.“It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” Trump told POLITICO, as widespread protests calling for an end to the regime appear to have waned.
Regime forces have massacred between 12,000 and 15,000 people, opposition groups claim. The regime has reportedly deployed Hezbollah and other foreign fighters, besides the loyalist Basij militia, to crush the uprising.
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