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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday called US President Donald Trump a “criminal” for supporting weeks of protests in Iran and accused the demonstrators for causing thousands of deaths in the country.
The protests erupted on December 28 over economic woes in Iran and later turned into nationwide demonstrations which called for the end of clerical rule in the Islamic Republic which came into power after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Trump has repeatedly threatened the Iranian administration of intervening militarily, including promising to “take very strong action” if Tehran executed protesters.
The US President sent a message to the seditionists saying he would support them and provide military support. In other words, the US President himself was involved in the sedition. These are criminal acts.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) January 17, 2026
Khamenei in a speech, broadcast by the state television, said the protests in the country had left “several thousand” people dead, which is the first signal from an Iranian leader of the extent of casualties from the protests which faced a deadly crackdown from the authorities.
The supreme leader of Iran said, “In this revolt, the US president made remarks in person, encouraged seditious people to go ahead and said: ‘We do support you, we do support you militarily.” Khamenei reiterated an accusation that Washington is seeking a domination over Tehran’s political and economic resources.
“We do consider the US president a criminal, because of casualties and damages, because of accusations against the Iranian nation,” Khamenei said. The supreme leader added that he considers the protesters as “foot soldiers” of the US and said they have destroyed mosques and educational centers. “Through hurting people, they killed several thousand of them,” he said.
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Khamenei’s comments came a day after Trump thanked the Iranian administration for cancelling the mass hanging, saying that “Iran canceled the hanging of over 800 people,” and adding that “I greatly respect the fact that they canceled.”
Iran, however, said there was “no plan to hang people”. Khamenei, reportedly indirectly responded to Trump saying, “We will not drag the country into war, but we will not let domestic or international criminals go unpunished,” state media reported.
The three-week long protests saw massive crackdown by security forces across Iran and left at least 3,090 people dead, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
(with inputs from agencies)
