Ayatollah Khamenei, who holds ultimate authority over Iran’s state affairs, accused the US president of making incendiary comments that supported rebellion. “He encouraged the seditious individuals and announced, ‘We back you, including with military support,'” Khamenei stated.

He emphasized his belief that the United States aims to dominate Iran’s economic and political landscape.

“We regard the US president as a criminal due to the losses and accusations inflicted on the Iranian people,” Khamenei declared.

Khamenei went on to characterize the demonstrators as mere “foot soldiers” for the US, claiming they had been involved in the destruction of mosques and educational establishments.

“By harming the populace, they were responsible for the deaths of several thousand individuals,” he asserted.

In response, Trump called for an end to Khamenei’s nearly 40-year reign.

“The man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people,” Trump told Politico in an interview on Saturday (Sunday morning AEDT).

“His country is the worst place to live anywhere in the world because of poor leadership.”

“It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” he added.

Trump had sounded a conciliatory tone

The back-and-forth rhetoric came a day after Trump sounded a conciliatory tone, saying “Iran cancelled the hanging of over 800 people” and adding “I greatly respect the fact that they cancelled”.

He did not clarify whom he spoke to in Iran to confirm the state of any planned executions. His comments were a sign he may be backing away from a military strike.

The official IRNA news agency reported that Tehran Prosecutor General Ali Salehi, referring to Trump’s remarks about the cancellation of the death sentence of 800 protesters, said: “Trump always makes futile and irrelevant statements. Our attitude is severe, preventive and fast.”

In recent days, Trump had told protesting Iranians that “help is on the way” and that his administration would “act accordingly” if the killing of demonstrators continued or if Iranian authorities executed detained protesters.

In his speech, Khamenei said rioters were armed with live ammunition that was imported from abroad, without naming any countries.

“We do not plan, we do not take the country toward war. But we do not release domestic offenders, worse than domestic offenders; there are international offenders. We do not let them alone either,” he said, and urged officials to pursue the cases,” he said.

Iran has returned to an uneasy calm after harsh repression of protests that began December 28 over Iran’s ailing economy.

The agency has been accurate throughout the years of demonstrations, relying on a network of activists inside Iran that confirms all reported fatalities. The AP has been unable to independently confirm the toll.

Iranian officials have repeatedly accused the US and Israel of fomenting unrest in the country.

Reports of limited internet access briefly restored

There have been no signs of protests for days in Tehran, where shopping and street life have returned to normal, and Iranian state media have not reported any new unrest.

During the protests, authorities blocked all internet access on January 8. On Saturday, text messaging and very limited internet services began functioning again briefly in parts of Iran, witnesses said.

Cellphone text messaging began operating overnight, while users were able to access local websites through a domestic internet service. Some also reported limited access to international internet services via the use of a virtual private network, or VPN.

The extent of access and what was behind it wasn’t immediately clear. It’s possible that officials were turning on some systems for the start of the Iranian working week, as the outage has affected businesses, particularly banks in the country, trying to handle transactions.

Internet traffic monitoring service Cloudflare and internet access advocacy group NetBlocks reported very slight increases in connectivity on Saturday morning, while Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency also reported limited internet access. It did not offer an explanation.

No new protests reported after exiled Iranian royal’s call for further demonstrations

A call by Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi for protesters to take to the streets again from Saturday to Monday did not appear to have been heeded by Saturday afternoon.

Pahlavi, whose father was overthrown by Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, enjoys support from die-hard monarchists in the diaspora but has struggled to gain wider appeal within Iran.

However, that has not stopped him from presenting himself as the transitional leader of Iran if the government were to fall.

Police arrested 14 people for disorder, with some being injured.