SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iran’s Supreme Leader called the ongoing protests that engulfed the country “scattered riots” designed by the enemy, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.
“These scattered riots are the passive and clumsy design of the enemy against the great and innovative developments and movements of the Iranian nation,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.
Protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in the custody of the morality police.
While observers do not believe the unrest, now in its fourth week, is close to toppling the government, the protests mark one of the boldest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution, with reports of strikes spreading to the vital energy sector.
