3rd LD-Wrirethru: Iran's top leader blames U.S., Israel for inciting recent unrests

TEHRAN, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday blamed the foreigners, including the United States and Israel, for inciting recent unrests in a number of Iranian cities, semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

"Clues and intelligence evidence show that these events have been orchestrated (by enemies), and a triple party has been involved in bringing it about," ISNA quoted Khamenei as saying.

The plot for the recent unrests in Iran had been developed by the United States and Israel which had been working on their scheme for months, Khamenei said.

The money for carrying out the plot was provided by one of the rich states in the Persian Gulf region, he said, implicitly referring to Saudi Arabia which was also blamed by other Iranian officials over the past days.

Besides, the dissident MKO, with its headquarters based in Paris, was the third side to contribute to the violence in Iran, he said.

Khamenei described the recent wave of violence that hit some areas of the country as "fireworks and vicious acts," Press TV reported.

Rejecting claims that Iran is afraid of the U.S. power, Khamenei pointed to the past events and the way people kicked the U.S. out of Iran in the 1970s, saying Iran even forced the United States to leave the entire region in recent years, Tasnim reported.

He also hit back at the U.S. officials for expressing concern about the events in Iran, saying Washington itself should be ashamed of U.S. police's killing of 800 American people over the past year.

The U.S. government that resorted to any measure to suppress the Occupy Wall Street Uprising and killed people on any charge is in no position to voice concern over Iran, Khamenei noted.

Over the past week, protests erupted in a number of Iranian cities against the government's economic policies.

At least 20 people, including civilians and policemen, were killed and dozens of others injured during violent clashes between protesters and security forces, according to unofficial reports. Enditem