Iran was largely cut off from the outside world on Friday after authorities blacked out the internet to curb expanding protests, with phone calls not reaching the country, flights cancelled and online Iranian news sites only intermittently updating.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused protesters of acting on behalf of US President Donald Trump, saying rioters were attacking public properties and warning that Tehran would not tolerate people acting as “mercenaries for foreigners”. He also told Trump to focus on the problems in his own country.
The protests, which began on December 28 over an inflationary spiral, have not approached the scale of unrest three years ago but have spread across Iran with dozens reported dead and the authorities looking more vulnerable because of a dire economy and the aftermath of last year’s war with Israel and the United States.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has reported at least 34 protesters and four security personnel killed, and 2,200 arrested during the unrest.
Iran’s fragmented external opposition factions called for more protests on Friday with Reza Pahlavi, exiled son of the late ruling shah, telling Iranians in a social media post: “The eyes of the world are upon you. Take to the streets.”
Trump, who bombed Iran last summer and who last week warned Tehran it could come to the protesters’ aid, said on Friday he would not meet Pahlavi and was “not sure that it would be appropriate” to support him.
Videos verified by Reuters as having been taken in the capital Tehran showed hundreds of people marching. In one of the videos, a woman could be heard shouting, “Death to Khamenei!”
Iran has quelled far bigger bouts of unrest before, but it now faces a graver economic situation and intensifying international pressure with global sanctions over its disputed nuclear programme reimposed since September.
The Supreme Leader, the ultimate authority in Iran above the elected president and parliament, used tougher language in his speech on Friday.
“The Islamic Republic came to power through the blood of hundreds of thousands of honourable people. It will not back down in the face of vandals,” he said, accusing those involved in unrest of seeking to please Trump.
Khamenei also told Trump to focus on the problems in his own country.
Khamenei said Trump’s hands “are stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians” and predicted the “arrogant” US leader would be “overthrown” like the imperial dynasty that ruled Iran up to the 1979 revolution.