Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that the recent wave of protests across Iran have been stoked by foreign agencies seeking to destabilise the Islamic Republic.

In a tweet on 2 January, the Supreme leader said: “In recent events, enemies of #Iran have allied & used the various means they possess, including money, weapons, politics &intelligence services, to trouble the Islamic Republic. The enemy is always looking for an opportunity & any crevice to infiltrate &strike the Iranian nation.”

In a following tweet he added that he will speak on the matter later. “I have something to say on these events, and I will speak to the dear people when the time is right.”

The US responded to the accusations saying that the protests are spontaneous. US President Donald Trump has published various tweets supporting the protests.

On 31 December, President Hassan Rouhani said Iranians had the right to protest but their actions should be restrained. “People are entitled to criticise all affairs in the country and we believe that the government and country belong to the people and they should be able to express what they want to,” he said according to a report by the official IRNA news agency.

He later added that criticism is totally different from hostility and damaging public property.

The unrest in Iran began on began last 28 December, and it has been reported that since then 22 people have been killed and hundreds of people have been detained. The demonstrations started in the North Eastern City of Mashhad, and were initially over price rises and corruption. They soon spread and widened to voice general anti-government sentiment.

Since 28 December there have been protests in Tehran, Qom, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Rasht, and Hamedan.

The protests are the largest since 2009 when the Green Movement contested President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s election victory. At least 30 people were killed and thousands arrested during those protests, which were the largest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.