Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered the Basij militias, the paramilitary forces under the highest Iranian authority, to «punish» the «troublemakers and terrorists» he believes are behind the protests that have rocked the country since the death in custody of young Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, allegedly for wearing the Islamic headscarf incorrectly.
In a speech before hundreds of members of this militia, Khamenei once again pointed the finger at the United States as being behind these protests, which he framed in a more general conflict that also involves the negotiations on the nuclear agreement with the international community.
«The battlefield is limited to a handful of rioters walking the streets, but that doesn’t mean they should be ignored. Any troublemaker, any terrorist, must be punished,» the ayatollah said.
The Iranian supreme leader has also rejected calls for reform in the wake of the young woman’s death. «There are people who suggest that I ‘listen to the voice of the nation,’ but the thunderous voice of this country has already made itself heard in the ten million people who commemorated the funeral of the martyr Soleimani,» he said, referring to the prominent Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, killed in a U.S. bombing in Iraq in January 2020.
«The voice of the nation,» the Iranian supreme leader has continued, «is heard in the funerals for our martyrs and in the slogans of the people against terrorism and troublemakers.»
Finally, the ayatollah celebrated the recent victory of the Iranian national soccer team against Wales in the World Cup in Qatar and made no mention of the controversy that arose in recent days, when the team refused to sing the national anthem, in an alleged gesture of repudiation of the repression of the protests that has cost, according to NGOs, more than 400 lives. «They have made the people happy,» the supreme leader declared.
