Khamenei blames 'enemies' for Iran protests

Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday blamed the country's enemies to instigate the ongoing anti-government protests, which has continued for the last five days.

Speaking for the first time since the protests, the supreme leader was quoted by local media reports in a post on his official website: "In recent days, enemies of Iran used different tools including cash, weapons, politics and intelligence services to create troubles for the Islamic Republic."

Khamenei, however, did not mention the 'enemy' countries that had started the protests. He said he would disclose them later.

Iran is still witnessing a wave of demonstrations, being held in many cities across the country as people took to raising anti-government slogans, over alleged corruption and rising prices that plagued the people of the country earlier in this week.

The official death toll in the protests has risen to 20. Scores of protestors have been arrested in the last few days.