Iran’s Khamenei says Trump ‘guilty for the casualties’ in protests

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday accused US President Donald Trump of being responsible for “casualties” during a protest wave in the country that rights groups said was met with a deadly crackdown.

“We hold the American president guilty for the casualties, damages and accusations he has levelled against the Iranian nation,” he told a crowd of supporters during an address marking a religious holiday.

“This was an American conspiracy,” he said, adding that “America’s goal is to swallow Iran … the goal is to put Iran back under military, political and economic domination”.

He also said authorities “must break the back of the seditionists”.

“We do not intend to lead the country to war, but we will not spare domestic criminals… worse than domestic criminals, international criminals, we will not spare them either,” he said.

“By God’s grace, the Iranian nation must break the back of the seditionists just as it broke the back of the sedition,” he said.

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