Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Iranian regime, in remarks marking the beginning of the regime’s “Fajr” ceremonies, which it uses to mark the anniversary of the 1979 revolution, described the January protest uprising as a “sedition” and a quasi-coup in which trained ringleaders were tasked with carrying out “killing operations.”
Khamenei said: “Therefore, they were attacking military and law enforcement centers, carrying out armed attacks with advanced weapons, advanced personal weapons, in order for reactions to come from the other side as well and for a number of people to be killed.”
He claimed: “They did not even stop at this. They even struck from behind the same foot soldiers whom they themselves had brought into the field through propaganda. I was informed that among the wounded from that incident, some were attacked from behind; meaning they did not even spare their own people. Why? So that the number of the dead would increase.”
Mass Arrests After Protests in Iran, the Naked Repression of Khamenei’s Rule
Human rights organizations have estimated the number of those killed to be at least in the thousands, and the regime’s narrative of “killing operations” has also faced strong backlash from social media users. If the killing of protesters was not carried out by the government, why was the internet shut down to prevent documentation? If someone else fired the bullets, why do families say they were asked to pay for the bullets in order to receive the bodies of their loved ones? Why are doctors and medical staff arrested for treating the wounded, and what kind of country is this where infiltrating agents can do anything they want in the streets? It is, of course, obvious that the Iranian regime resorts to such tactics to evade responsibility for the bloody January killings. This has also happened in past protests, and the Iranian regime has tried to attribute its own crimes to actors beyond its borders.
Khamenei says that the enemy exaggerates the number of those killed: “Well, it is not unlikely for people like these to lie in this way. They present figures ten times, and more than ten times, higher. The enemy’s goal was to disrupt the country’s security.”
Khamenei also claimed that many of the ringleaders had been arrested and had confessed to receiving money for their actions and being trained on how to attack centers and gather and mobilize young people. He continued: “But another group of the rioters were emotional youths, with whom we do not have much of a problem.”
Amnesty International says that since the start of the new wave of protests, thousands of citizens across Iran have been arbitrarily arrested, a figure that, according to the organization and based on reports by independent media, human rights organizations, and human rights defenders, in fact encompasses tens of thousands of people.
Detainees comprise a wide range of social groups, from street protesters and human rights activists to students, journalists, lawyers, healthcare workers, and members of ethnic and religious minorities who have either participated in demonstrations or engaged in activities supporting protesters.
The organization says that in many cases, detainees, without access to a lawyer and under intense physical and psychological pressure, were forced to sign forms they were not allowed to read, or to make forced confessions on camera about security-related crimes and even entirely peaceful acts such as sending images of protests to Persian-language media outlets outside the country.
Khamenei also referred for the first time to protests by bazaar merchants and, while calling the protesters seditionists, claimed that they hid behind the merchants, who had logical and valid demands and had come into the streets, in order not to be identified.
He continued: “Of course, the smart bazaar merchants, upon seeing the actions of the rioters such as attacking police stations instead of moving calmly in the streets, separated themselves from them and left the seditionists alone.”
At a time when the country is facing economic collapse and, amid the tangled and confusing nuclear dispute with the West, is being drawn toward the brink of war, Khamenei referred to the United States’ threat of military attack and warned that if a war breaks out, it will be a regional war.
Khamenei attributed the nationwide January uprising to the United States and Israel and also cited the threat by Donald Trump, the president of the United States, who warned the government against killing protesters and addressed the Iranian people by saying that “help is on the way,” as proof of the validity of his claim.
He also said that this uprising “was like a coup, but the coup was suppressed.”
