IRANIAN communists slammed claims by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday that the protest wave sweeping the country was orchestrated by the United States and Israel.

Visiting a police academy Mr Khamenei said he was “heartbroken” by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini three weeks ago, which prompted the explosion of street protests that has engulfed Iran since, but claimed that “these riots ... were designed by America and the zionist regime.” 

He added that female protesters who had torn off their hijabs — Ms Amini was arrested for failure to comply with Iran’s sexist dress code — were undertaking “actions that are not normal, that are unnatural” and said young people who “come to the streets in excitement after watching something on the internet” should be “disciplined,” while protest organisers should be subject to “harsh prosecution and punishment.”

“The Islamic Republic has never passed up an opportunity to label [protesters] agents of Western imperialism,” Tudeh Party of Iran international secretary Navid Shomali told the Morning Star.

“No, the movement which has yet to show any sign of abating despite brutal repression expresses popular revulsion against the theocratic dictatorship, the culmination of more than four decades of the Iranian people’s anger, disgust, and hatred at the ruling criminal regime.

“Of course there are discredited organisations in exile, chiefly the monarchists and [People’s Mojahedin], that would happily hijack the protests to their own ends — but they have little traction inside Iran as evidenced by one of the key slogans of the protests, ‘down with the oppressor, whether shah or supreme leader’.”

The Tudeh Party warned that the protest movement was divided and unless brought together in a national movement, “the regime will be able to ride out the protests.” 

But it saluted the protesters’ courage and said all independent Iranian trade unions and progressive parties were with them.