“RIOTERS must be put in their place,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said at the weekend, apparently encouraging the security forces to crush protests over his country’s struggling economy.

At least 15 people have been killed, according to rights activists, in violence linked to the demonstrations, which began a week ago and show no sign of ending.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s remarks were made to an audience in Tehran on Saturday, the day after US President Donald Trump claimed that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States would “come to their rescue,” though he did not say how this would happen.

Mr Trump’s comments sparked an immediate angry response, with Iranian officials threatening to target US troops in the Middle East.

The protests are the biggest in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations. However, the latest movement has not yet become as widespread and intense as that sparked by the death of Ms Amini, who was detained for failing to wear a hijab in public.

On Saturday Mr Khamenei sought to draw a distinction between demonstrators voicing legitimate anger at the collapse of the Iran’s currency, the rial, and “rioters.”

“We talk to protesters, the officials must talk to them,” he said. “But there is no benefit to talking to rioters. Rioters must be put in their place.”

The supreme leader reiterated a claim constantly made by Iranian officials that foreign powers such as Israel or the US are behind the protests, but offered no evidence. He also blamed “the enemy” for the rial’s collapse.

“A bunch of people incited or hired by the enemy are getting behind the tradesmen and shopkeepers and chanting slogans against Islam, Iran and the Islamic republic,” he alleged.

President Masoud Pezeshkian has sought talks to address protesters’ demands, but hard-line officials are believed to have been pushing for a more aggressive response.

Bloody security crackdowns often follow such protests. Unrest over a petrol price rise in 2019 reportedly saw over 300 people killed. A crackdown on the Amini protests of 2022, which lasted for months, killed more than 500 people and over 22,000 were detained.

Demonstrations have spread to over 170 locations in 25 of Iran’s 31 provinces, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported early today. The death toll had reached at least 15, it added, with over 580 arrests.