Iran blames CIA for week of protests; US denies role

Tehran’s Friday prayer leader called on authorities to deal “firmly” with those responsible for igniting over a week of demonstrations, in which 22 people have died and more than 1,000 have been arrested, according to Iranian officials.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei breaks his silence, saying on Jan 2 that Iran’s “enemies have united and are using all their means” against the regime.

The West’s policy of appeasement toward Iran must now come to a shuddering stop in the wake of these mass protests. Haley said the fragments were recovered from missiles launched at Saudi Arabia by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The next day larger-scale protests flare up in more cities including western Kermanshah and religious centre Qom, where footage shows hundreds of demonstrators chanting “Death to the dictator” and “Free political prisoners”.

Iran’s latest public uprisings – spontaneous but not unexpected – lack the scope and organisation of the Green Movement protests of 2009, and did not arise from the traditional political forces in the country.

State media is reporting a “heated” market for VPNs since the government began restricting the apps.

There were fewer reports of protests across the country and less of a police presence in Tehran on Tuesday night, according to the BBC.

Khoshroo charged that the United States had violated global law and the principles of the UN charter and urged countries to condemn Washington’s statements.

Russia also warned the U.S. against attempts to meddle in Iran’s domestic affairs, with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov saying that Washington had used the situation to hamper the nuclear agreement with Tehran.

US President Donald Trump says it is “time for change” in Iran.

Thankfully, President TrumpDonald John TrumpHouse Democrat slams Donald Trump Jr. for “serious case of amnesia” after testimony Skier Lindsey Vonn: I don’t want to represent Trump at Olympics Poll: 4 in 10 Republicans think senior Trump advisers had improper dealings with Russia MORE is sending a strong message that the United States supports the Iranian people in their pursuit of freedom. Trump wrote in the post.

But diplomats said Wednesday that no such meeting was scheduled for the time being.

Rohani, whose family left Iran for Canada almost 50 years ago, said he is disappointed by the silence from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and called on him to step up and “take a principled stand and support the right of the people of Iran to freely express themselves”.

State Department Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steve Goldstein said on Tuesday that Iranians were using virtual private networks to access Facebook and Twitter pages where the department was communicating with protesters. “We want to see them step away from a regime that continues to menace the world”, he was quoted as saying in a January 3 interview with Voice of America.

The U.N. Security Council is holding an emergency meeting called by the United States to consider the protests that have roiled Iran in recent days.

He added that US calls for an extraordinary meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the turmoil in Iran interfered with the country’s sovereignty, news agency Interfax said.

Congressman Jim Banks represents Indiana’s 3rd District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

A senior White House official says the USA is considering new sanctions on Iran over the crackdown.

After seven days of rioting involving hundreds of thousands of protesters, the terrified clerical regime has instructed Gen. Ali Jafari, the head of its criminal Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, recently listed as an worldwide terrorist organization by the U.S. Treasury Department, to claim that “the sedition” has been put down and that only 15,000 “troublemakers” in total had taken to the streets over the past week of riots.

“They launched (social media) campaigns with the theme of “no to high prices”, “no to paying bills”, he said, adding that the plan was to start unrest in the provinces before moving on to Tehran.

In Moscow, a top Russian diplomat warned the US not to meddle in Iran’s affairs and suggested that Washington wants to use the unrest to undermine the Iran nuclear agreement.

In an October speech, Trump declined to certify that Tehran is complying with the accord and warned that the United States might ultimately withdraw from the agreement.

As a wave of protests against worsening living standards and unemployment gripped Iran, Washington was quick to throw its support behind the demonstrators.

IS claimed responsibility for a rare attack in Tehran in June that killed 17 people at the parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The marchers chanted, “The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader (Khamenei)”.

The 2015 agreement, in which Iran curbed its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of some sanctions, remains popular in Iran, but one of the central grievances of the protesters is that average Iranians have seen few benefits from it.