Khamenei calls Trump a "criminal," blames U.S. and Israel for unrest

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, used a televised address to sharply denounce U.S. President Donald Trump as a "criminal" and to lay primary blame on the United States and Israel for the wave of unrest that has convulsed Iran since late December. Speaking on January 17 in Tehran, Khamenei attributed "massive damage" and the deaths of "several thousand" to what he called foreign-instigated "sedition," and said those "linked to Israel and the U.S." had "started fires, destroyed public property and incited chaos."

The speech was the most direct and public assignment of responsibility by Iran’s clerical leadership to date. Khamenei warned that the authorities would hold culprits to account, saying he would not "drag the country into war, but we will not let domestic or international criminals go unpunished." He and other officials have portrayed many demonstrators as armed rioters or terrorists rather than as an internally driven movement.

Independent verification of casualty and arrest totals remains difficult. The Iran-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported that it had verified 3,090 deaths, including 2,885 protesters, and more than 22,000 arrests. Those figures cannot be independently confirmed amid a government-imposed communications blackout that began on January 8 and only began to ease in spots around January 17 and 18, when witnesses reported brief returns of text messaging and very limited internet access. Tehran appeared outwardly calm at the time of Khamenei’s speech, with shopping and street life resuming under a tense veneer of normality.

Hardline clerics amplified the leadership’s rhetoric. On state radio, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami denounced demonstrators as the "butlers" of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and "Trump’s soldiers." Audiences chanted that "Armed hypocrites should be put to death!" and Khatami warned that "Americans and Zionists should not expect peace." Those broadcasts signaled a domestic environment in which the state is presenting protesters as externally manipulated enemies, preparing the ground for tougher security measures.

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has accused external actors of meddling in the unrest during a phone call with Russia’s president. Meanwhile, President Trump publicly threatened "very strong action" if Iran proceeded with executions of protesters, urged Iranians to "take over" the country, and later told reporters he had decided not to strike and that he had "convinced" himself to stand down.

The competing narratives deepen diplomatic peril. Tehran’s allegations of foreign orchestration, if left unchallenged or unresolved, risk further isolating the country and complicating any international attempts at mediation. The scale of the reported casualties raises urgent human rights concerns and creates pressure for transparent, independent investigation—an outcome rendered more difficult by restricted access and the communications blackout.

For the international community, the immediate task will be to press for reliable information and restraint on all sides. Tehran’s insistence that it will punish those it deems criminals, combined with state-sanctioned denunciations of protesters, suggests the next phase will test domestic stability and regional diplomacy, with consequences that could reverberate beyond Iran’s borders.