Iran's leader calls Trump 'criminal' for backing protests, blames demonstrators for deaths

Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday branded US President Donald Trump a criminal for supporting protesters in Iran and blamed demonstrators for causing thousands of deathsIn a speech broadcast by state television Khamenei said the protests had left several thousand people dead the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the casualties from the wave of protests that began December 28 and led to a bloody crackdownIn this revolt the US president made remarks in person encouraged seditious people to go ahead and said We do support you we do support you militarily said Khamenei who has final say on all state matters He reiterated an accusation that the US seeks domination over Irans economic and political resourcesWe do consider the US president a criminal because of casualties and damages because of accusations against the Iranian nation he saidHe described the protesters as foot soldiers of the United States and said they had destroyed mosques and educational centresThrough hurting people they killed several thousand of them he saidKhamenei stresses pursuit of lsquointernational offendersrsquo amid Trumprsquos conciliatory remarksHis comments come a day after Trump sounded a conciliatory tone saying Iran cancelled the hanging of over 800 people and adding I greatly respect the fact that they cancelledHe did not clarify who he spoke to in Iran to confirm the state of any planned executions His comments were a sign he may be backing away from a military strikeIn recent days Trump had told protesting Iranians that help is on the way and that his administration would act accordingly if the killing of demonstrators continued or if Iranian authorities executed detained protestersIn his speech Khamenei said rioters were armed with live ammunition that was imported from abroad without naming any countriesWe do not plan we do not take the country toward war But we do not release domestic offenders worse than domestic offenders there are international offenders We do not let them alone either he said and urged officials to pursue the casesIran protests An uneasy calmIran has returned to an uneasy calm after harsh repression of protests that began December 28 over Irans ailing economy The crackdown has left at least 3090 people dead according to the USbased Human Rights Activists News Agency exceeding that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalling the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolutionThe agency has been accurate throughout the years of demonstrations relying on a network of activists inside Iran that confirms all reported fatalities The AP has been unable to independently confirm the tollIranian officials have repeatedly accused the United States and Israel of fomenting unrest in the country On Friday Irans President Masoud Pezeshkian in a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the US and Israel of meddling in the unrestIran protests Reports of limited internet access briefly restoredThere have been no signs of protests for days in Tehran where shopping and street life have returned to outward normality and Iranian state media has not reported on any new unrestDuring the unrest authorities blocked all internet access on January 8 On Saturday text messaging and very limited internet services began functioning again briefly in parts of Iran witnesses saidCellphone text messaging began operating overnight while users were able to access local websites through a domestic internet service Some also reported limited access to international internet services via use of a virtual private network or VPNThe extent of access and what was behind it wasnt immediately It was possible that officials were turning on some systems for the start of the Iranian working week as the outage has affected businesses particularly banks in the country trying to handle transactionsInternet traffic monitoring service Cloudflare and internet access advocacy group NetBlocks reported very slight increases in connectivity Saturday morning while Irans semiofficial Mehr news agency also reported limited internet access It did not offer an explanationExiled Iranian royal calls for further protestsThere have been no signs of protests for days in Tehran where shopping and street life have returned to outward normality A call by Irans exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi for protesters to take to the streets again from Saturday to Monday did not appear to have been heeded by Saturday afternoonPahlavi whose father was overthrown by Irans 1979 Islamic Revolution enjoys support from diehard monarchists in the diaspora but has struggled to gain wider appeal within Iran However that has not stopped him from presenting himself as the transitional leader of Iran if the government were to fallThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and 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