The Iranian authorities’ deadly response to the protests sparked threats of intervention from US President Donald Trump, who dispatched an aircraft carrier group to the region.
“The Americans should know that if they start a war, this time it will be a regional war,” he said, telling Iranians they “should not be scared” of Trump’s rhetoric.
The demonstrations in Iran began as an expression of discontent at the high cost of living, but grew into a mass anti-government movement that the country’s leaders have described as “riots” fomented by the United States and Israel.
“They (rioters) attacked the police, government centres, IRGC centres, banks, and mosques, and burned the Koran… It was like a coup,” Khamenei said, adding that “the coup was suppressed”.
Tehran has acknowledged more than 3,000 deaths during the protests, but insists that most were members of the security forces and innocent bystanders, attributing the violence to “terrorist acts”.
Rights groups and foreign governments, however, have accused Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of carrying out a crackdown that killed thousands of protesters.
The response prompted the European Union to list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, with Iranian lawmakers retaliating on Sunday by slapping the same designation on European armies.
Iran and the United States have been trading warnings and threats of potential military action, even as their leaders appear to leave the door open for negotiations.
Firouzeh, a 43-year-old homemaker who declined to give her full name, said the recent tensions had left her “very worried and scared”.
“Lately, all I do is watch the news until I fall asleep. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night to check the updates.”
IRGC official Ahmad Vahidi was quoted by the Mehr news agency as saying “enemies” sought to create a “war atmosphere”.
“This is part of their psychological operations. Therefore we should not fall into this trap,” Vahidi said.
The ultra-conservative Kayhan daily ran the headline “West Asia, Iran’s home and America’s graveyard”, while Mehr said several thousand graves in Tehran were ready to receive the remains of American soldiers if the United States attacked.
But Ali Larijani, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Saturday: “Contrary to the hype of the contrived media war, structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing.”
Trump also confirmed that dialogue was taking place, but without withdrawing his earlier threats, adding “we’ll see what happens”.
The US president previously said he believed Iran would make a deal over its nuclear and missile programmes rather than face military action.
Tehran, meanwhile, has said it is ready for nuclear talks if its missile and defence capabilities are not on the agenda.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Saturday that “a war would be in the interest of neither Iran, nor the United States, nor the region”, during a call with his Egyptian counterpart, according to his office.
Qatari premier Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al, who also serves as foreign minister, held talks in Iran Saturday to try to “de-escalate tensions”, the kingdom’s foreign ministry said.