The supreme leader calls the anti-government protests, which began after the death of Mahsa Amini, ‘riots’.

Tehran, Iran – Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has blamed the United States and Israel for protests that have gripped the country for more than two weeks, accusing the countries of trying to stop Iran’s “progress”.

Iran’s supreme leader argued that the unrest was an attempt to stop the country from the advances he said it had made despite harsh US sanctions imposed since 2018 when Washington unilaterally abandoned Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

It has eased some internet sanctions on Iran to try to help Iranians circumvent government restrictions on the internet imposed since the protests began.

Comments by leading athletes and artists in support of the protests also attracted Khamenei’s attention, with the Iranian supreme leader saying that those who had spoken out represented only a minority of Iran’s sports and artistic community.