Khamenei says, "In these incidents, the most oppressed were the police and Basij forces."

On Monday, October 1, Iranian domestic media published a text of a speech by Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, and said that the speech was made after he attended the "joint graduation ceremony of students from armed forces universities at the Imam Hassan Police Officers and Training University."

According to this report, in this speech, Ali Khamenei considered the entire recent ongoing popular protest movement that has been taking place in most cities in Iran to be "the work of foreign spy agencies and hostile policymakers" and "designed" by the United States and Israel, and said that "in these incidents, the country's law enforcement organization and the Basij" were oppressed the most.

This is despite the fact that, according to published reports and videos, police and Basij forces have used extreme violence against protesters during the protests, killing about a hundred protesters, including several children, by directly firing live ammunition.

Also, the police force, which is accused of "murdering" Mahsa Amini, is unwilling to provide a detailed response and release documents related to her arrest.

In this speech, Ali Khamenei claimed that "I am stating frankly that these unrest and insecurity were planned by America and the usurping and fake Zionist regime, and their paymasters and some traitorous Iranians abroad helped them."

Officials of the Islamic Republic refer to Israel with titles such as the "Zionist regime."

He added that he believes "this is not caused by anything other than spy agencies and hostile foreign policymakers, and behind the scenes of recent cases are these bullies, and the fight is not over the death of a young girl or over wearing a hijab or not wearing it properly."

The Leader of the Islamic Republic did not provide any evidence or documents for this claim and did not provide any details.

His statement about the lack of relevance of the hijab in the protests is also made at a time when the issue of protesting against the compulsory hijab is among the main topics of the popular protests in the streets of Iran over the past seventeen days, as is evident from the slogans and burning of headscarves by the protesters.

Ali Khamenei also considered the death of Mahsa Amini due to her arrest by the Ershad patrol to be "not certain" and that it had not been "investigated."

This is while eyewitnesses have reported that Mahsa Amini was beaten during her arrest by the "Guidelines Patrol" forces, and independent doctors, after viewing a CT scan of Mahsa Amini's brain, have confirmed that her skull was fractured due to severe trauma.

Ayatollah Khamenei further claimed that during the popular protests, “the Quran was burned, the veil was removed from the head of a veiled woman, and the mosque and the Husseiniya were set on fire.” He did not provide evidence for any of these claims.

Ali Khamenei had not appeared in public in recent days and, despite the three weeks of anti-government protests in Iran, had not previously commented on them.

Previously, Khamenei's website reported on a speech he gave to the military on September 20, in which the Leader of the Islamic Republic did not mention the death of Mahsa Amini and the protests that followed.

This is despite the fact that before the protests began, the New York Times had reported that Ali Khamenei had fallen ill and was undergoing surgery.

Amid the protests, the New York Times also emphasized that the American newspaper's report about the Islamic Republic of Iran's leader's recent illness and surgery was accurate.

Also, before the protests began, speculation about his physical condition arose, especially on social media, following the cancellation of the official meeting between members of the Assembly of Experts and Khamenei, as well as the cancellation of his speech to the Basijis of Gorgan.

Ali Khamenei has held the main power of the Iranian government since 1989 as the Supreme Leader and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

The publication of news about "Khamenei's meeting with the armed forces" in the midst of Iranian protests could be seen as his support for the suppression of Iranian protests.

The topic of famous faces

Ali Khamenei then referred to the stance taken by a growing number of Iranian sports and artistic figures against the Islamic Republic in recent days and said: "In my opinion, these stances are of no importance and one should not be sensitive about them."

He then questioned the "honor" of figures who are accompanying the protesting people, saying: "Our artistic and sports community is healthy and there are many faithful and honorable elements in it, and the stance taken by a few people is of no value."

The Leader of the Islamic Republic continued by saying about Iranian celebrities: "It is up to the judiciary to determine whether their stances are criminal or not, but in general, the stances of these individuals have no value, and the artistic and sports community will not be contaminated by these positions of the enemy of joy."

During the protests, many famous Iranian and foreign artistic and sports figures supported the protesters, which especially angered the Islamic Republic's officials.

Former footballer Ali Karimi, comedian Mehran Modiri, and Iranian national football team striker Sardar Azmoun are among these figures.

On Monday, October 25, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the head of the Islamic Republic's judiciary, threatened figures supporting the protests living inside the country, saying they must pay for "material and moral damages" caused by the protests.

Source: Radio Farda