In a striking revelation, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has admitted that thousands were killed during the recent nationwide protests that rocked the country over the past two weeks. In a speech on Thursday, Khamenei stated that “thousands of people had been killed, some in an inhuman, savage manner,” and blamed the United States for the high death toll.
The Supreme Leader’s remarks stand in stark contrast to previous government claims that the protests were a foreign-backed plot to destabilise Iran. Khamenei lashed out at US President Donald Trump, whom he labelled a “criminal” for supporting the demonstrations, and called for the strict punishment of protesters.
The protests, which began on 28 December with traders taking to the streets in Tehran in response to a sudden drop in the value of the Iranian rial, quickly spread across the country. Demands expanded to include calls for an end to the government, marking the most serious and deadly unrest the nation has seen since the 1979 revolution.
The brutal crackdown by authorities, which human rights groups say included the “mass killing of protesters,” has largely driven people off the streets. However, the opposition appears determined to continue the fight, with prominent figure Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late Shah of Iran, urging Trump to intervene.
Pahlavi stated, “I believe the president is a man of his word,” and added that “regardless of whether action is taken or not, we as Iranians have no choice but to carry on the fight.”
Meanwhile, the Iranian government has sought to present a public display of punishing those involved in the protests, which they have characterised as a foreign-backed plot. Senior cleric Ahmad Khatami has gone as far as demanding the execution of protesters, describing them as “butlers” and “soldiers” of Israel and the US.
With the country still cut off from the rest of the world due to an ongoing internet shutdown, the long-term implications of the protests remain uncertain. However, the Supreme Leader’s acknowledgement of the high death toll and the opposition’s determination to continue the fight suggest that the unrest in Iran is far from over.