Tehran Friday Prayer Leader:‎

Foreign plotters failed to achieve goals in recent unrests

Ayatollah Khatami blasted certain foreign countries for orchestrating recent violence in Iran ‎and supporting the rioters, and said that their plots were all in vain.‎

News ID: 447721

Date: 23 November 2019 - 19:09

RNA – Addressing a large and fervent congregation of the people attending Friday prayers in ‎Tehran, Ayatollah Sayyed Ahmad Khatami said, “The enemies themselves said that they had ‎planned for three years and trained their men inside and outside the country, while the ‎milking cow of Trump spent a lot in the recent unrests and provided them with its media and ‎did whatever it could, but their plots were foiled.”‎

In relevant remarks on Wednesday, Head of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps Public ‎Relations Department Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif announced that ringleaders of the ‎recent riots in Iran who had ties with foreign security agencies have been arrested in four ‎large provinces.‎

The ringleaders of unrests in four provinces of Iran, including Alborz, Fars, Tehran and ‎Khuzestan, have been arrested, General Sharif said, addressing a gathering in the Northern ‎province of Gilan.‎

He noted that these arrests contributed a lot to riots to abate, adding that these individuals ‎had links with foreign security services.‎

General Sharif said the enemies employed thugs to create unrest after the failure of ‎sanctions against Iran.‎

The United States and its proxies have gained nothing 18 months after the imposition of ‎fresh sanctions on the Iranian nation, the general said, adding that the Americans have ‎formally announced support for the riots and recent acts of vandalism and insecurity in Iran.‎

On Wednesday, Iranian President Hasan Rouhani praised people for keeping distance from ‎the rioters who damaged public and private properties, and said the recent violence in Iran ‎was organized by the United States, Israel and certain reactionary regimes in the region.‎

‎“The number of people who had taken to the streets was clear, and there were only a few ‎hooligans were among them; but the hooligans were well organized and armed, acting on ‎behalf of the regional reactionaries, the Zionists and Americans,” Rouhani said, addressing a ‎cabinet meeting in Tehran.‎

‎“As the Leader said, our people have foiled the enemies’ plots in face of different incidents, ‎and they became victorious in the recent plots that the enemies had hatched,” he added.‎

Riots by a small number who had taken advantage of legitimate public protests against the ‎government’s gas price hike plan in Iran were directed at sowing chaos through targeted ‎attacks on public and private properties, forcing law enforcement to step in to stop ‎saboteurs.‎

Early estimates of an intelligence body showed that a sum of nearly 87,000 protesters and ‎rioters had taken part in protest rallies and gatherings since Friday night, mostly (over 93%) ‎men. A large number of protesters had only been present in the gathering centers and ‎avoided joining the rioters in sabotage attacks on public and private properties.‎

‎“The identical methods of the main core of violent rioters discloses that they are fully trained ‎individuals who have been prepared and looking forward for the situation to rise, unlike most ‎people who have been taken off guard by the sudden hike in gas price,” the report said.‎

The report showed that gatherings have been comprised of 50 to 1,500 people held in 100 ‎regions of the country out of a number of 1,080 major towns and cities. The report says ‎violent raids and damage inflicted on properties has been larger than what happened in ‎February 2018 unrests.‎

Most cases of damage to properties had happened in Khuzestan, Tehran, Fars and Kerman ‎provinces. The report says most casualties have resulted from armed outlaws’ attacks on oil ‎storage and military centers, adding that a number of police and popular forces have been ‎martyred in these attacks.‎

Nearly 1,000 people were arrested across the country while over 100 banks and 57 big ‎stores were set on fire or plundered in just one province.‎

The Iranian intelligence ministry announced in a statement on Sunday that it had identified ‎several rioters who misused the recent protest rallies against the gasoline price hikes to ‎destroy public and private properties.‎

‎“The main culprits behind the riots in the past two days have been identified and proper ‎measures are being adopted and the honorable nation will be informed about its result ‎later,” the statement said.‎

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