DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's supreme leader on Wednesday claimed without evidence that recent protests across the Islamic Republic over gasoline price hikes were part of a "conspiracy" involving the United States, as authorities began to acknowledge the scale of the demonstrations.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the comment while addressing members of the Revolutionary Guard's all-volunteer Basij force, which help put down the demonstrations.
One lawmaker was quoted as saying authorities arrested more than 7,000 people over the protests and a security official claimed demonstrators attempted to take over Iranian state television.
Iran's government has not offered any statistics on injuries, arrests or deaths in the protests and security crackdown that followed government-set gasoline prices rising on Nov. 15. Amnesty International says it believes the violence killed at least 143 people, something Iran disputes without offering any evidence to support its claims.
In his comments reported by state media, Khamenei said the Iranian people extinguished "a very dangerous deep conspiracy that cost so much money and effort." He praised the police, the Guard and the Basij for "entering the field and carrying out their task in a very difficult confrontation."
Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state, described the protests as orchestrated by "global arrogance," which he uses to refer to the United States. He said America saw the price hikes as an "opportunity" to bring their "troops" to the field but the "move was destroyed by people."
Wednesday is the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Basij. Videos from the protest appear to show plainclothes Basij officials and others on motorcycles beating and detaining protesters.
The moderate news website Entekhab quoted Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, a member of parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, as saying more than 7,000 people had been arrested in the demonstrations. He did not elaborate.
Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli claimed in an interview late Tuesday on state television that "some 500 people" tried to storm Iran's state television offices. He did not elaborate and no protests had been previously reported in the northern Tehran neighborhood home to the state broadcaster.
Fazli estimated as many as 200,000 people took part the demonstrations, higher than previous claims. He said demonstrators damaged more than 50 police stations, 34 ambulances, 731 banks and 70 gas stations in the country.
"We have individuals who were killed by knives, shotguns and fires," he said, without offering a casualty figure.
On Nov. 16 Iran shut down the internet across the country. That made determining the scale and longevity of the protests difficult. While home and office internet has been restored, access on mobile phones remains rare.
The gasoline price hike came as Iran's 80 million people have already seen their savings dwindle and jobs scarce under crushing U.S. sanctions. President Donald Trump imposed them in the aftermath of unilaterally withdrawing America from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers.
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