Larijani: Armed Rioters in Iran Operate as Enemy-Backed Urban Terror Cells

By Staff, Agencies

Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said violent rioters who have taken up arms against security forces are being organized by Iran’s enemies in the form of quasi-terrorist urban groups.

Speaking on Friday night, Larijani said that after failing to defeat Iran during the 12-day imposed war in June 2025, hostile powers shifted tactics and moved to target what he described as Iran’s main source of strength: national unity.

He said the enemies exploited protests by business owners and bazaar merchants to incite violence, turning demonstrations into armed unrest by funneling firearms and Molotov cocktails into the streets.

Larijani described the saboteurs and vandals as members of a “quasi-terrorist urban group,” noting that their attempts to storm military and law-enforcement centers to seize weapons showed an intention to ignite civil war. He stressed that the judiciary and security forces would show zero tolerance toward armed groups seeking to attack military and government facilities or disrupt public life.

Earlier on Friday morning, Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei said vandals had destroyed buildings in Tehran and other cities in an effort to appease the US president.

“The US president has the blood of more than 1,000 Iranians on his hands,” Imam Khamenei said, adding that Donald Trump has openly admitted ordering attacks during the 12-day war in June 2025 that killed more than 1,000 Iranians, including military commanders, scientists and civilians.

The Imam criticized what he described as a group of misled individuals who, deceived by the US president, set garbage bins on fire to please him. He said the Islamic Republic—founded on the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of devoted people—will never retreat in the face of vandalism or tolerate mercenary behavior in service of foreign interests.

When an individual becomes a mercenary and serves outsiders, that person will be rejected by the Iranian nation and the Islamic establishment, the Leader said. He also urged Iran’s youth to maintain readiness, unity and active presence, emphasizing that a cohesive and united nation will overcome all enemies.