Iran President accuses U.S. of ‘destabilisation’ amid protests

Ebrahim Raisi’s remarks come after protests erupted in cities across Iran on October 12

Iran's President on Thursday accused the United States of conducting a “failed policy of destabilisation” targeting his nation, as Iranian protesters continued to call for the downfall of its rulers despite a violent and wide-ranging crackdown.

President Ebrahim Raisi has repeatedly dismissed the unrest sparked by the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody as a purported Western plot, without providing evidence.

His latest remarks came after protests erupted in cities across Iran on Wednesday, with videos showing security forces apparently firing toward demonstrators and using violence to put down the dissent.

The protests, in which girls and women of all ages have removed their mandatory headscarves, or hijabs, have become one of the greatest challenges to Iran's theocracy since the country's 2009 Green Movement.

Mr. Raisi, a hard-line protege of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has likened the protesters to “flies” and sought to downplay the unrest.

“The Iranian nation has invalidated the American military option and, as they themselves have admitted, brought the policy of sanctions and maximum pressure a humiliating failure,” Mr. Raisi said on Thursday to a conference in Astana, Kazakhstan.

“Now, following America's failure in militarisation and sanctions, Washington and its allies have resorted to the failed policy of destabilisation," he said, according to a transcript of his remarks.