Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has blamed the United States and Israel for protests that have gripped the country for more than two weeks following the death of Mahsa Amini detained due to the improperly worn hijab.

Axar.az reports citing Al Jazeera that Khamenei told graduating cadets at a police university in Tehran.

“I say explicitly that these riots and this insecurity were a design by the US and the occupying, fake Zionist regime [Israel] and those who are paid by them, and some traitorous Iranians abroad helped them."

He said the woman's death was an accident and people should not react so fiercely to her death before investigations.

The protests sparked by Amini's death have continued since September 18 and have claimed, by some information, over 100 lives.