Iran has foiled attempts by its foreign enemies to turn legitimate protests into an insurgency to overthrow the Islamic republic, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday.
Comments on his Twitter feed and in Iranian media underscored the regime's confidence that it has extinguished the unrest that spread to more than 80 cities and in which at least 22 people were killed.
Iranian security forces arrested some 3,700 people during the protests over the past two weeks, a lawmaker said Tuesday. The figure was far higher than the one the authorities previously released, just over 1,000.
On Tuesday, authorities released 70 more prisoners on bail after releasing a batch of 70 on Sunday, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said.
Khamenei tweeted, "Once again, the [Iranian] nation tells the U.S., Britain, and those who seek to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran from abroad that 'you've failed, and you will fail in the future, too.'"
The Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that security forces had put an end to the unrest whipped up by foreign enemies.
Khamenei said U.S. President Donald Trump was grandstanding when he tweeted that protesters were trying "to take back their corrupt government" and promised "great support from the United States at the appropriate time!"
"This man who sits at the head of the White House – although, he seems to be a very unstable man – he must realize that these extreme and psychotic episodes won't be left without a response," Khamenei tweeted.
Khamenei also blamed the violence on Israel, on the exiled dissident group People's Mujahideen of Iran, and on "a wealthy government" in the Persian Gulf, a probable reference to Iran's regional rival, Saudi Arabia.
Khamenei has called the protests – which were initially about the economy but soon turned political – "playing with fireworks," but he said citizens had a right to air legitimate concerns. This was a rare concession by a leader who usually voices clear support for security crackdowns.
"These concerns must be addressed. We must listen, we must hear. We must provide answers within our means," Khamenei was quoted as saying, hinting that both President Hassan Rouhani's government and his own clerical leadership must also respond.
"I am also responsible. All of us must follow up," Khamenei said.
Meanwhile, a judiciary official said on Tuesday that a prisoner in Arak, a town about 124 miles south of Tehran, committed suicide. On Monday, a different judiciary official announced that a detainee had committed suicide in Tehran's Evin prison.
The reports have raised concerns among human rights activists and some Iranian politicians that detainees may have been killed by security forces while in custody.
"I warn the president and security and judiciary officials to prevent the occurrence of a second Kahrizak," parliament member Mahmoud Sadeghi tweeted on Monday. He was referring to the Kahrizak prison, which gained notoriety when a group of detainees were tortured and killed there after the unrest of 2009.
Human rights activists outside Iran said they were not surprised by the figure as authorities also allegedly carried out so-called "preventative arrests" of students not involved in the protests.
Activists also said they had concerns about Iran's prisons and jails being overcrowded and dangerous, pointing to allegations of torture, abuse and deaths. The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran said at least three detainees arrested in the recent protests have already died in custody.
"Given the systematic rape and torture of detainees in 2009 in very overcrowded and inhumane conditions, we are extremely worried about the fate of these thousands of detainees and the lack of information and access by their families and lawyers," said Hadi Ghaemi, the center's executive director. "It is a very troubling situation."
