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Iran’s supreme leader vowed on Friday that authorities would “not back down” in the face of growing protests, blaming the US for instigating the demonstrations that started over economic conditions and have since expanded to calls for political reform.
In his first speech since the protests started 13 days ago, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, signalled that a greater crackdown was coming. He described protesters as “vandals” and “saboteurs”, and accused them of working on behalf of foreign agendas.
Protesters are “ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy … because he said he would come to their aid”, Khamenei said – a reference to Donald Trump, who has threatened American intervention in Iran if authorities kill protesters.
The US president, in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, suggested the supreme leader was preparing to flee Iran. “He’s looking to go somewhere. It’s getting very bad,” Trump said.
In a separate speech, the head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, said consequences for demonstrators would be “decisive, maximum and without any legal leniency”.
Protesters filled Iran’s streets overnight, despite a nationwide internet shutdown and an escalating crackdown.
Videos showed crowds of thousands of people marching through the streets of Iran’s capital, setting fire to a building belonging to the Iranian state broadcasters and hoisting a flag bearing the lion and sun emblem –the flag of Iran before the 1979 revolution that brought the current regime to power.
Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the late shah of Iran, called for protests on Thursday evening. Footage showed protesters chanting in support of Pahlavi, including in Mashhad, Khamenei’s home town.
The protest movement, active in all provinces of Iran, is the most significant challenge to authorities in years. They started on 28 December after a sudden depreciation in the value of the country’s currency, but demands for political reform and an end to the regime’s rule quickly emerged.
Protesters who went out on Thursday night said they were met with violence – part of what rights groups are calling an already brutal crackdown.
“They’re aiming for the eyes,” Maryam, a 25-year-old artist who was at protests in Tehran in the early hours of Friday told the Guardian via text message. “The Faraja [uniformed police], the Basij [paramilitary militia] and even plainclothes kill-squads are driving into the crowds with motorbikes. I don’t know how long the internet will be working but we are thousands on the streets and I fear I will wake up to hundreds of causalities.”
At least 42 people have been killed in the violence surrounding protests, while more than 2,270 others have been detained, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists news agency.
Iranian state media acknowledged the protests for the first time on Friday, casting the unrest as violent riots instigated by “terrorist agents” of the US and Israel. State TV channels projected an air of normality, airing footage of pro-government demonstrations and insisting life went on as usual for most Iranians.
State media claimed Iran had caught agents from Israel’s the Mossad who had infiltrated protest movements, with Iranian-owned Press TV reporting that a Mossad cell was planning a “false-flag killing operation aimed at blaming the state for civilian deaths”.
Authorities cut off internet to Iran at about 8pm local time (1630 GMT) on Thursday night, around the same time as Pahlavi’s call for protests. Understanding exactly what was happening in Iran and the true size of protests was difficult, with data and phone lines down.
Demonstrators appeared to respond to Pahlavi’s call, with anti-government chants ringing out at 8pm, as well as calls for the exiled crown prince to return. Elements of the movement, largely leaderless until now, have rallied around the figure, though it was unclear if chants were in support of the crown prince or the pre-1979 rule.
“I am proud of each and every one of you who conquered the streets across Iran on Thursday night,” Pahlavi said in a post on X. “I know that despite the internet shutdown and communication, you won’t leave the streets. Make sure that victory is yours!”
Pahlavi issued another call for demonstrations on Friday night at 8pm, which would be a further test for the exiled figure’s popularity and the staying power of protests in the face of the authorities’ crackdown.
Pahlavi’s organisation also alleged that “tens of thousands” of security officers had signalled their intentions to defect via a platform it had set up, and that the organisation had been “inundated” by requests from officers.
The crackdown seemed only to harden protesters’ resolve, many of whom described scenes of defiance, with rocks thrown at officers forcing them to retreat.
Ali, a 21-year-old student in Tehran, said via text message: “Fuck them! The cowards abandoned their vehicles and fled! We took over the streets tonight. We will burn their vans, the same that they use to drag our compatriots and kidnap our sisters from the streets. The country belongs to us!”
Anger at the regime and the clerics who form a backbone of the theocracy seemed to boil over throughout the week. On Wednesday, crowds of men streamed into a Shia seminary in the city of Gonabad, beating staff with sticks and damaging the facility, according to the director of the seminary, Ismail Tavakoli.
Another protester said unarmed protesters were confronting riot police, throwing rocks in response to bullets fired by officers.
“They are vulgar and are saying we are in bed with the Israelis and Americans,” said Farzad, a 37-year-old mobile shop owner in the city of Rasht in northern Iran. “They call us traitors. It’s them that have betrayed the very sense of being an Iranian.”
