Iranʼs Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has publicly acknowledged for the first time the scale of the death toll from the countryʼs protests, saying "several thousand" people have died in the unrest.
Khamenei said this in a speech, the Associated Press reports.
At the same time, he placed responsibility for the deaths not on the security forces, but on the protesters themselves. Khamenei called them “US foot soldiers” and said they were attacking mosques and educational institutions.
According to him, the protesters, by "harming people", themselves caused thousands of deaths. Separately, the Iranian leader sharply criticized US President Donald Trump, accusing him of inciting the protests to continue.
Khamenei said Washington was trying to gain control over Iranʼs economic and political resources.
"We consider the US president a criminal because of the victims and losses, and because of the accusations against the Iranian nation," he said.
This is the first time that Iranʼs supreme leader has publicly given an approximate death toll since the start of the protests, which have long been accompanied by violent crackdowns and mass detentions.
According to the human rights organization HRANA, as of January 16, the twentieth day of protests, the death toll from demonstrations in Iran has exceeded 3 000, with at least 2 055 seriously injured. Approximately 22 123 people have been arrested.
- Protests in Iran began in late December 2025 and are still ongoing — initially people took to the streets because of the collapse of the currency, rising prices, and falling incomes, and then the demands broadened: people are demanding political change, the resignation of the leadership, the release of political prisoners, and greater freedom, including rights for women.
- The Iranian authorities are suppressing protests using water cannons and tear gas, as well as firing live ammunition at demonstrators, mass arrests, internet shutdowns, and surveillance technologies.
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