Addressing the nationwide protests—which have escalated over the past two weeks and captured global attention—Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, defiantly dismissed the unrest as a “passing fad” during a televised address on Friday, 9 January 2026.

While global pundits have attributed the protests to a range of interconnected factors—including economic uncertainty exacerbated by runaway inflation, the death and devastation inflicted by Iran’s recent hostilities with Israel and the United States, and the public’s mounting impatience with an oppressive theocracy—Khamenei was unequivocal in identifying “the growing allure of Satanism” as their principal cause.

“The devil is adept at devising new charms to captivate both the infidel and the infirm,” the Ayatollah observed. Khamenei cited “the vulgar appeal of Trump’s boorish bravado” and “the worldwide hysteria over Heated Rivalry” as among “the latest potent tools deployed by Satan to enchant and enthral the masses.”

“Centuries of subjugation to tyrannical regimes have shaped the Iranian psyche in a particular way. When the more infirm segments of our population—those who submit out of fear rather than conviction—see Trump parading U.S. military might and ordering the seizure of foreign leaders on a whim, they perceive him as the dominant figure. They then begin to bend to his will, undermining their own nation in pursuit of his approval. The same weak-willed individuals watch Heated Rivalry and become obsessed with blindly emulating the ‘tough guys’, engaging in ‘bad boy’ behaviour and rejecting the righteous path.”

“In time, the will of Allah, expressed in the instinct for self-preservation, will no doubt prevail, and these lost souls will once again learn to submit to us wholeheartedly,” Khamenei concluded.