Iran’s Khamenei says ‘protesters must be put in their place’

Iran’s supreme leader insisted on Saturday that “riots must be put in their place” after a week of protests that have rocked the Islamic Republic, possibly giving security forces the green light to put down the protests by force.

The first comments by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, come as violence surrounding protests sparked by Iran’s faltering economy has killed at least 10 people. The protests show no signs of stopping and follow US President Donald Trump’s warning to Iran on Friday that if Tehran “brutally kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will help them.”

While it remains unclear how and if Trump will intervene, his comments have sparked a swift and angry response, with officials under the Democratic administration threatening to target US troops in the Mideast. They also took on new significance after Trump said on Saturday that US forces had kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran.

The protests have become the largest in Iran since 2022, when the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in police custody sparked protests across the country. However, the protests have yet to become as widespread and intense as those associated with the death of Amini, who has been arrested for not wearing a hijab, or headscarf, as the authorities prefer.

State television broadcast Khamenei’s remarks to an audience in Tehran that sought to separate the concerns of protesting Iranians outraged by the fall of the rial from “rebels”.

“We are talking to the protesters, officials must talk to them,” said Khamenei. “But it’s no use talking to the rebels. The protesters must be put in their places.”

He reiterated the claim made regularly by officials in Iran that foreign countries such as Israel or the US were pushing the protests, without providing evidence. He also blamed the “enemy” for the collapse of the Iranian rial.

“A crowd of people inspired or employed by the enemy followed traders and shopkeepers and chanted slogans against Islam, Iran and the Islamic Republic,” he said. “This is the most important thing.”

The ranks of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards include the Basij volunteer force, whose members ride motorcycles and violently quell protests such as the 2009 Green Movement and the 2022 protests. The guards answered only Khamenei.

Hardline officials in Iran are believed to have wanted a stronger response to the protests as President Masoud Pezeshkian sought talks to address the protesters’ demands.

But bloody security attacks often follow such protests. Protests over the increase in fuel prices in 2019 are reported to have killed more than 300 people. The crackdown on Amini’s protests in 2022, which lasted for months, left more than 500 people dead and more than 22,000 arrested.

“Iran has no organized domestic opposition; the protesters are likely to act spontaneously,” Eurasia Group said in an analysis on Friday. “While protests may continue or escalate (especially as Iran’s economic situation continues to deteriorate), the regime maintains large security forces and can suppress such opposition without losing control of the country.”

Death at night in protests

The death of two people on Saturday night involved a new level of violence. In Qom, which is home to the largest Shiite scholars in the country, a bomb exploded, killing a man, Iran newspaper reported. It quoted security officials as suspecting that the man was carrying a bomb to attack people in the city, which is 130 kilometers south of the capital, Tehran.

Online videos from Qom are said to show street fires throughout the night.

The second death occurred in the city of Harsin, which is 370 kilometers southwest of Tehran. There, the newspaper said, a member of the Basij, the volunteer arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, died in a gun and knife attack in the city of Kermanshah province.

Protests have reached more than 100 locations in 22 of Iran’s 31 provinces, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported.

The protests, which focused on economic issues, heard protesters chanting against the Iranian regime. Tehran has had little luck boosting its economy in the months since its June war with Israel in which the US bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities in Iran.

Iran has recently said it is no longer burning uranium anywhere in the country, trying to show the West that it is still open to possible talks about its nuclear program in order to ease sanctions. However, those talks have not taken place, as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have warned Tehran not to renegotiate the plan.