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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed President Trump for the deaths and injuries of protestors during recent demonstrations that shook the Middle Eastern country.
“We hold the American president guilty for the casualties, damages and accusations he has levelled against the Iranian nation,” he said, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency. Khamenei was speaking to a crowd of supporters during an address marking a religious holiday.
Khamenei also described the protests as an “American conspiracy” and accused the United States of trying to “put Iran back under military, political and economic domination.” He also called Mr. Trump a “criminal,” Reuters said.
“The latest anti-Iran sedition was different in that the U.S. president personally became involved,” Khamenei said, according to Reuters.
The protests began as demonstrations against economic hardship and snowballed quickly into nationwide protests against the Islamic Republic’s leadership.
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The demonstrations raged for more than two weeks before authorities began a brutal crackdown. Iran’s Internet was shut down late last week, and information from within the country is still hard to come by. Two sources inside the Islamic Republic, including one inside Iran who was able to call out of the country on Tuesday, told CBS News that at least 12,000 and possibly as many as 20,000 people are feared to have been killed. Thousands of others were arrested and are now facing possible death sentences for taking part in the demonstrations.
Senior foreign correspondent Imtiaz Tyab said on “CBS Saturday Morning” that sources inside Iran have described a nation “gripped with fear and in deep mourning.”
“We’ve had accounts of mass funerals and bodies buried in unmarked graves,” Tyab said. The worst of the violence reportedly came during what’s being called “The Night of Blood” last Thursday, he said.
Sources say there is now relative calm during the day, Tyab said, though chants of “death to the dictator” rise from rooftops at night.
Mr. Trump told “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil on Tuesday that there would be “very strong actions” against the Iranian regime if it hanged accused protestors. He said in the Oval Office on Wednesday that “we have been told that the killing in Iran is stopping, it has stopped, it’s stopping.”
“They’ve said the killing has stopped and the executions won’t take place,” he said, citing “very important sources on the other side” but not giving any specifications. “There were supposed to be a lot of executions today and that the executions won’t take place. And we’re going to find out.”
On Friday, Mr. Trump even took the unusual step on Friday of thanking the Iranian government for not following through on executions of what he said were meant to be hundreds of political prisoners.
“Iran canceled the hanging of over 800 people,” he told reporters while leaving the White House to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, adding that he “greatly respected” the move.
Mr. Trump repeatedly expressed his support for the protestors and told Iranians that “help is on its way.” The Trump administration says the president has a range of options at his disposal, from conventional military strikes to cyber warfare.
