IRANIAN President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that United States President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Europe stirred tensions by “provoking” people during the recent protests that gripped the country.
“They equipped and brought a number of innocent people along with this movement and poured them into the streets and incited them to tear this country apart, create fights and hatred between people, and create division,” Pezeshkian said in a televised speech on Saturday, according to Iran’s official Student News Network.
“In any normal protest, they don’t pick up guns, they don’t kill military personnel, they don’t set fire to ambulances and markets, and we should sit with the protesters, listen to their words and concerns, and resolve them; we are ready to listen,” he added.
“Everyone knows that the issue was not just a social protest,” Pezeshkian said, claiming that the foreign powers “took advantage of our problems”, “provoked us” and “sought to divide our society”.
Iranian authorities acknowledge that thousands were killed during the recent protests, giving a toll of more than 3,000 deaths, but say the majority were members of the security forces or bystanders killed by “rioters”.
But rights groups warn the toll is likely far higher, with estimates in the tens of thousands.
For several weeks, Trump has been threatening to launch a military strike on Iran over its deadly protest crackdown earlier this month – protests Tehran repeatedly claimed were incited by foreign powers.
A US naval strike group has been in Middle Eastern waters since Monday, and Trump warned it was “ready, willing and able” to hit Iran “if necessary”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday the country is ready for “fair and equitable” talks with the US, adding: “Iran has no problem with negotiations, but negotiations cannot take place under the shadow of threats.
“I should also state unequivocally that Iran’s defensive and missile capabilities – and Iran’s missiles – will never be the subject of any negotiations,” Araghchi said during a news conference alongside his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan.
Separately on Friday, the US announced sanctions against Iran’s interior minister and other officials, over the incidents that took place during the protests.
Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni “oversees the murderous Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF), a key entity responsible for the deaths of thousands of peaceful protesters”, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement about the measures.
Those sanctioned also included several high-ranking officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as Iranian investor Babak Morteza Zanjani, who stands accused of having “embezzled billions in funds from the Iranian people”.
In a first, the Treasury Department also announced sanctions against digital currency exchanges linked to Zanjani “that have processed large volumes of funds associated with IRGC-linked counterparties”.