Vast conspiracy defeated
Says Iran’s Khamenei, blames US for stirring up street unrest
Iran’s top leader yesterday denounced an outbreak of deadly unrest as a “very dangerous conspiracy” as authorities reported about 731 banks and 140 government sites had been torched in the disturbances.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the protests amounted to a plot that Iranians had defeated, referring to the worst anti-government unrest in Iran since authorities put down demonstrations against election fraud in 2009.
The disturbances began on November 15 after the announcement of garoline price hikes, but quickly turned political, with protesters demanding top leaders step down.
In response, the government has blamed “thugs” linked to exiles and the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia for stirring up the street unrest.
“A deep, vast and very dangerous conspiracy that a lot of money had been spent on ... was destroyed by the people,” Khamenei said in a meeting with members of the paramilitary Basij force which took part in the crackdown against protests, according to his official website.
Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli meanwhile said about 731 banks and 140 government sites were torched in the unrest.
More than 50 bases used by security forces were attacked and approximately 70 gas stations were also burned, he said, in remarks published by the official IRNA news agency, without specifying where the attacks took place.
According to IRNA, Rahmani Fazli also said up to 200,000 people took part nationwide in the unrest.
London-based Amnesty International said on Monday it had recorded at least 143 protesters killed in the protests.
Iran has rejected Amnesty’s death toll. It says several people, including members of the security forces, were killed and more than 1,000 people arrested. The Center for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based advocacy group, said the number of arrests was probably closer to 4,000.
The United States said it had received thousands of messages from Iran about protests after appealing to demonstrators to defy restrictions on the internet.
“We’ve received to date nearly 20,000 messages, videos, pictures, notes of the regime’s abuses through Telegram messaging services,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, referring to the encrypted app.
The protests took place as new US sanctions imposed this year cut off nearly all of Iran’s oil exports, and as similar protest movements erupted in Iraq and Lebanon against governments that include heavily armed pro-Iran factions.