Iran’s Leader Blames Tripartite Plot for Recent Unrest in Iran

The leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said a tripartite plot was behind the recent violent unrest in some Iranian cities, stressing that a distinction should be made between legitimate demands of the people and acts of vandalism by a certain group, Tasnim News reports.

“Clues and intelligence evidence show that these events (unrest in Iran) have been orchestrated (by enemies), and a triple party has been involved in bringing it about,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a gathering of people of Qom, held in Tehran on Tuesday.

The Leader referred to the U.S. and Israel as one side of the triangle that masterminded the plot and worked on it for months, saying the plot was supposed to entail unrest in small cities that would spill into the capital. On the second side of the tripartite plot stood a Persian Gulf wealthy state which financed the ploy, the Leader said, adding that the third party included lackeys of the terrorist Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) that had been prepared since months ago.

Ayatollah Khamenei also pointed to two command bases the enemies had set up in the vicinity of Iran to coordinate and control the operation, saying one of the bases was tasked with handling the operation in the cyberspace, while the second one focused on directing the unrest.

“Both bases were being commanded by the Americans and Zionists,” the Leader added.

Rejecting claims that Iran is afraid of the U.S. power, Ayatollah Khamenei made a reference to the past events and the way people kicked the US out of Iran in the 1970s and said Iran even forced the U.S. to leave the entire region in recent years. He then hit back at the U.S. officials for expressing concern about the events in Iran, saying Washington itself should be ashamed for U.S. police’s killing of 800 American people over the past year.

“The U.S. government that resorted to any measure to suppress the Occupy Wall Street Uprising and killed people on any charge is in no position to voice concern for Iran. The U.S. is clearly pursuing the objective of overthrowing the Islamic Republic,” Ayatollah Khamenei warned, saying unlike the previous U.S. administrations, the current one has announced such a policy in an unabashed and overt manner.

In a furious series of Twitter posts and statements on his website on Tuesday, Iran’s supreme leader called President Trump “psychotic” and repeated accusations that the United States bore primary responsibility for instigating a week of protests that rocked Iran in recent weeks.

“He says that the Iranian government is afraid of U.S. power. So, if we are ‘afraid’ of you, how did we expel you from Iran in the late 1970s and expel you from the entire region in the 2010s,” the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said of Trump.

Khamenei, who admitted that the recent protests, where people shouted harsh slogans against him, had hurt Iran’s establishment, threatened the United States with revenge.

“They damaged us during these days, they know there will be some sort of retaliation. This man who sits at the head of the White House – although, he seems to be a very unstable man – he must realize that these extreme and psychotic episodes won’t be left without a response,” he said.

Khamenei said that people have genuine grievances that should be addressed by the government, even as he blamed foreign powers for a wave of protests that hit Iran in recent weeks. His remarks — which come as demonstrations have dwindled — constituted a rare admission from the hard-line cleric, who wields ultimate authority in Iran and has led brutal crackdowns on dissent.

The remarks were standard fare for Khamenei, who has presided over Iran’s powerful clerical and security establishments for 29 years. He has long painted Western nations as enemies of the Islamic Republic.

“As expected, Khamenei has blamed foreign powers for the unrest in Iran. Iran’s political elite are trying to dampen the very legitimate grievances that motivated people to pour into the streets,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.