Tehran , 10 January (H.S.): Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lambasted anti-government demonstrators on Friday, as vandals ruining their own streets ... in order to please the president of the United States, directly countering U.S. President Donald Trump's pledges of support during protests that have claimed at least 62 lives since late December.

Addressing crowds at his Tehran compound amid chants of Death to America!, the 86-year-old cleric—whose hands protesters claim bear Iranian blood—dismissed Trump as meddlesome, urging him to address domestic woes while judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei vowed decisive, maximum punishments without leniency for those labeled terrorists by state media.

Sparked by the rial's collapse to 1.4 million per dollar amid sanctions and post-war economic agony, the unrest escalated after exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi's calls for 8 p.m. rallies on Thursday and Friday, drawing cries of Death to the dictator!, shah endorsements, and bonfires across Tehran, Hamedan (six dead), Qom (two security fatalities), and Zahedan.

A nationwide internet blackout—severing state outlets too—shields the scale of over 2,300 detentions, with Human Rights Activists News Agency citing 62 deaths; unverified videos depict fiery defiance despite live fire, prompting European leaders Friedrich Merz, Keir Starmer, and Emmanuel Macron to demand reprisal-free expression.

Pahlavi implored Trump's intervention against Khamenei's alleged murder plot, as Trump—hinting the leader eyes exile—reiterated hellish consequences for protester killings, demurring on Pahlavi meetings while eyeing democratic victors post-upheaval.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar