Khamenei vows he will 'not back down' to growing protests
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calls protesters vandals and saboteurs during his speech broadcast on Iranian state television.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei insisted on Friday (9 January) that the clerical regime he leads will "not back down" in the face of the growing social unrest and rare public calls for regime change and his ouster.
In his first comments on the protests since they began, a defiant Khamenei called the protesters "vandals" and "saboteurs" during a speech that was broadcast on Iranian state television.
Khamenei said the demonstrators were "ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy," in reference to US President Donald Trump, who has threatened strikes on Iran if protesters are killed.
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In an apparent reference to June's brief war between Iran and US-supported Israel, Khamenei said Trump's hands were "stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians."
Khamenei said the "arrogant" US president would face a similar fate to that of the shah of Iran, who was overthrown in the 1979 revolution that established the clerical regime.
"Last night in Tehran, a bunch of vandals came and destroyed a building that belongs to them to please the US president," Khamenei told his supporters, as men and women in the audience chanted "Death to America."
