IRAN’S supreme leader accused protesters yesterday of “ruining their own streets” to please the United States.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a brief address on television, signalled authorities would crack down on demonstrators as an audience shouted: “Death to America!”

Some Iranians marched through the streets after a call by the country’s exiled crown prince for demonstrations, despite Iran’s theocracy cutting off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls.

Short online videos shared by activists purported to show protesters chanting against Iran’s government around bonfires as debris littered the streets in the capital, Tehran, and other areas.

State media broke its silence over the protests, alleging “terrorist agents” of the US and Israel set fires and sparked violence. It also said there were “casualties,” without elaborating.

Protesters are “ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, referring to US President Donald Trump.

The full scope of the demonstrations couldn’t be immediately determined due to the communications blackout but they represent a test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose father fled Iran just before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.