Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday linked the ongoing protests in the country and a spate of recent attacks targeting security forces on Western powers, Yeni Safak reports.
In a meeting with people from the central Isfahan province, Khamenei said whenever Iran has asserted itself and made “progress”, the “enemy” has scaled up attacks to create “despair” and “hopelessness” among people and officials.
“The enemy is trying to make not only the people and youth, but also the officials lose hope, and unfortunately, the enemy has an internal extension that they are also trying to instill hopelessness and despair by using newspapers and cyberspace,” he said in statements cited by state media.
Khamenei said those “orchestrating the riots behind the scenes” wanted to bring people to the streets and are now “trying to exhaust the officials with villainous acts”, referring to the violence.
Iran has been rocked by sweeping protests in recent months triggered by the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of Iran's morality police in mid-September.
Fatal attacks on police officers and paramilitary Basiji forces have become increasingly common in recent weeks, with several incidents of knife assaults and shootings reported across the country.