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Khamenei breaks silence, blames US, Israel for protests

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded publicly on Monday to the biggest protests in Iran in years, breaking weeks of silence to condemn what he called “rioting” and accuse the United States and Israel of planning the protests.

The unrest, ignited by the death of a young woman in the custody of Iran’s morality police, is flaring up across the country for a third week despite government efforts to crack down. On Monday, Iran shuttered its top technology university following an hours-long standoff between students and the police, that turned the institution into the latest flashpoint of protests and ended with hundreds of young people arrested.

Speaking to a cadre of police students in Tehran, Khamenei said he was “heartbroken” by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody, calling it a “sad incident”. However, he sharply condemned the protests as a foreign plot to destabilise Iran, echoing authorities’ previous comments.

“These riots and insecurities were designed by America and the Zionist regime, and their employees,”he told a cadre of police students in Tehran. Meanwhile Sharif University of Technology in Tehran announced that only doctoral students would be allowed on campus until further notice, following hours of turmoil.

The unrest was ignited by the death of a woman in the custody of Iran’s morality police

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2022-10-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://news.dtnext.in/article/282145000232540

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