Iran’s supreme leader blames US-Israeli plot for protests - Financial Times

9/1/2018

Iran’s supreme leader blames US-Israeli plot for protests

Cleric insinuates Saudi Arabia helped fund unrest over Islamic regime

Rouhani hits back at Iran hardliners

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: 'The plot was engineered by America and Zionists' © AFP

Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran

Iran’s supreme leader on Tuesday accused the US, Israel and an Iranian opposition of plotting for months to orchestrate protests against the Islamic regime in which at least 21 people were killed.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was a prime target of the demonstrations, also insinuated that Saudi Arabia, Iran’s main regional rival, had helped fund the unrest. The protests began with complaints about rising living costs but quickly took on political slogans with calls for regime change and an end to rule by clerics.

“The plot was engineered by America and Zionists. For some months they have been planning to start the [protests] in small towns and then move towards the centre [Tehran],” Mr Khamenei said in a public speech. “The money belonged to the moneybags [Saudi Arabia] in the Persian Gulf . . . as the Americans are not ready to spend money as long as they exist.”

He said the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an exiled Iranian opposition group, was used as “pawns” to foment the protests. While the MEK is the Islamic republic’s most organised opposition movement, it is believed to have little support inside the country.

The US has dismissed suggestions it had any role in the unrest, which subsided towards the end of last week after hundreds of people were arrested. Saudi officials have not commented on the protests.

Mr Khamenei’s statement contrasted with remarks by President Hassan Rouhani, who on Monday acknowledged that disgruntlement among Iranians was fuelled by a “gap” between the youth and the country’s leaders.

Iran’s reformist politicians accuse regime hardliners of being behind the first rally on December 28 to undermine Mr Rouhani and his reform programme. That demonstration was followed by a wave of protests in dozens of towns and cities across the country.

Many demonstrators chanted “death to Khamenei” in the biggest public attacks against the supreme leader since he came to power 29 years ago.

He suffered further embarrassment on Monday when a video recorded in 1989 went viral that showed previously unseen footage of Mr Khamenei saying he was not religiously qualified to be supreme leader. The video was taken as Iran’s Experts Assembly, a top decision-making body, prepared to elect him to the post after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

At the time, Mr Khamenei was under pressure from top politicians and clerics to accept the position and is seen in the video saying he felt sorry for a country that had no other choice but him. “I would be a ceremonial leader,” he complained.

But Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and one of the pillars of the 1979 Islamic revolution, reassured him and those who opposed the choice that it was only a “temporary” decision “until the referendum”.

It is not clear if he was referring to the referendum on the Constitution in 1989 which gave the supreme leader an “absolute” authority.