Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a brief address aired by state television, signaled authorities would crack down on demonstrators. Protesters are “ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy,” Khamenei said, referring to President Donald Trump. The snap speech by Khamenei shows how seriously authorities are taking the protests.
The protests represent the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that could bring a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fueling the protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy.
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