Khamenei accuses US, Israel
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday accused arch-foes the United States and Israel of fomenting the wave of nationwide unrest sparked by outrage over the death of Mahsa Amini.
"I say clearly that these riots and the insecurity were engineered by America and the occupying, false Zionist regime, as well as their paid agents, with the help of some traitorous Iranians abroad," the supreme leader said.
Amini, 22, was pronounced dead on September 16, days after the notorious morality police detained the Kurdish Iranian for allegedly breaching rules forcing women to wear hijab headscarves and modest clothes.
Anger over Amini's death has sparked the biggest wave of protests to rock the Islamic republic in almost three years, which saw security forces in Tehran crack down on hundreds of university students overnight.
In his first public comments since Amini's death, 83-year-old Khamenei stressed that police must "stand up to criminals" and added that "whoever attacks the police leaves the people defenceless against criminals, thugs, thieves".
Concern grew about a crackdown overnight on students at Tehran's prestigious Sharif University of Technology where, local media reported, riot police carrying steel pellet guns used tear gas and paintball guns against hundreds of students.
"Woman, life, liberty" the students shouted, as well as "students prefer death to humiliation", Mehr news agency reported. Iran's science minister, Mohammad Ali Zolfigol, came to speak to the students in a bid to calm the situation, the report said.
Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights posted videos apparently showing police on motorcycles chasing students running through an underground car park and taking away detainees whose heads were covered in black cloth bags.
In one clip, taken at a Tehran metro station, a crowd can be heard chanting: "Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid! We are all together!"
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