Iran's leader Khamenei blames Trump for inciting deadly protests

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday blamed President Donald Trump for weeks of protests after rights groups said a violent crackdown by security forces had claimed thousands of lives.

The protests erupted on Dec 28 over economic hardship and swelled into widespread demonstrations calling for the end of clerical rule in the Islamic Republic.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene, including promising to "take very strong action" if Iran executes protesters.

But on Friday, in a social media post, he thanked Tehran's leaders, saying they had called off mass hangings. Iran said there was "no plan to hang people".

In comments that appeared to respond to Trump, Khamenei said: "We will not drag the country into war, but we will not let domestic or international criminals go unpunished," state media reported.

IRAN ACCUSES US AND ISRAEL OF ORGANISING PROTESTS

Iran's clerical establishment blames the violence in Iran's nationwide protests on people it says are armed rioters posing as protesters, labelling them “terrorists” and saying that Israel and the US were responsible for organising them and for many of the deaths of demonstrators and security forces.

"We consider the US president criminal for the casualties, damages and slander he inflicted on the Iranian nation," Khamenei said.

"Those linked to Israel and the US caused massive damage and killed several thousand," he said, adding that they started fires, destroyed public property and incited chaos. They "committed crimes and a grave slander," he said.

INTERNET SERVICES RESTORED IN PART

Reuters has not been able to independently verify the numbers of casualties or details of disturbances reported by Iranian media and rights groups.

The US-based HRANA rights group said it had verified 3,090 deaths, including 2,885 protesters, and over 22,000 arrests.

Getting information has been complicated by internet blackouts, which were in part lifted on Saturday.

On Saturday, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that internet service had been restored for some users. The ISNA news website said SMS service had also been reactivated.

"Metrics show a very slight rise in internet connectivity in #Iran this morning" after 200 hours of shutdown, the internet monitoring group NetBlocks posted on X. Connectivity remained around 2 percent of ordinary levels, it said.

A resident of Karaj, west of Tehran, reached by phone via WhatsApp, said he noticed the internet was back at 4am (0000 GMT) on Saturday. Karaj experienced some of the most severe violence during the protests. The resident, who asked not to be identified, said Thursday was the peak of the unrest there.

A few Iranians overseas said on social media that they had also been able to message users in Iran early on Saturday.

ARRESTS HAVE FOLLOWED INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS, MEDIA SAY

Iranian media affiliated with the government reported that several people they described as ringleaders of the unrest included a woman named as Nazanin Baradaran, who was taken into custody following “complex intelligence operations".

The reports said that Baradaran, operating under the pseudonym Raha Parham on behalf of Reza Pahlavi - the exiled son of Iran’s last shah - had played a leading role in organising the unrest. Reuters could not verify the report or her identity.

Pahlavi, a longtime opposition figure, has positioned himself as a potential leader in the event of regime collapse and has said he would seek to re-establish diplomatic ties between Iran and Israel if he were to assume a leadership role in the country.

Israeli officials have expressed support for Pahlavi. In a rare public disclosure this month, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said in an interview with Israel's Army Radio that Israel had operatives "on the ground" in Iran. He said they aimed to weaken Iran's capabilities, though he denied they were directly working to topple the regime.

In the northeastern city of Mashhad, 22 ringleaders have been arrested, media said, along with more than 10 people suspected of killings and 50 accused of setting fire to public and private property.

In the northern province of Gilan, officials said 50 ringleaders had been detained and that the total number of arrests has exceeded 1,500.

State TV reported that two men linked to the Mujahedeen Khalq, an exiled Iranian opposition group that advocates the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, were arrested in Tehran.