Iran supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blames unrest on a US-Israeli 'conspiracy'

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has blamed unrest in the country on a "conspiracy" involving the United States, Israel and "Iranian traitors abroad."

"A young woman died and that was very bitter and regrettable," Khamenei said on Monday in his first reaction to the case of the late Mahsa Amini and the ongoing protests across the country.

But it was neither normal nor acceptable to torch Korans, mosques, cars and banks for this reason and to tear headscarves from women's heads, the supreme leader asserted.

The 22-year-old Amini died in police custody in mid-September after being arrested for allegedly violating the country's Islamic dress code.

"These riots are an operation programmed by the US, the Zionist regime (Israel) and Iranian traitors abroad to torpedo the security of the country," the cleric said.

The US and the West are concerned neither with Amini nor with the headscarf requirement in Iran, he added.

"No one in the United States mourns the dead woman, it's all about the independence of the Islamic Republic and its resistance (against the United States)," Khamenei told state broadcaster IRIB.

He added that the Americans and Iran's enemies wanted to break this resistance and make the country once again dependent on the West.

As violent unrest continues to rock the country, classes have been suspended until further notice at Iran's Sharif University.

Starting Monday, classes will only take place online, the Aftab News portal reported.

According to university students, that plan is hardly feasible because of internet blocks that have been imposed in connection with the protests.

Since the death of Amini, hundreds of thousands of people across Iran have been demonstrating against the government.

Witnesses in the capital Tehran have said both security forces and protesters have become increasingly violent.

According to local media reports, security forces targeted Sharif students late on Sunday. Police officers and militias sealed off the campus overnight.

Several professors at the elite university have been beaten, the Iranian news portal Emtedad reported.

On social media, users spoke of a police attack and "civil war-like" conditions.

The Iranian media dismissed these reports as exaggerated anti-government sentiment.