In his third response to the country-wide protests in Iran, Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic regime of Iran called the November protests “the great conspiracy” and thanked the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Basij (IRGC’s civilian militia) for doing their job in fighting the protesters.

In his speech for the Basij members on Wednesday, Khamenei said: “This was a deep and widespread and very dangerous conspiracy which cost a lot of money and hard work for those who planned it.”

He described the country-wide protests in over 100 cities in reaction to the tripled price of gasoline as “destructive thuggery and murder” and added: “But the police, Basij, and IRGC entered the battlefield and did their job and duty in this difficult confrontation.”

The leader of the Islamic Republic continued: “The main enemy, the global imperialism who sits behind the monitors knows what this movement means. They get a slap in the face and are forced to retreat.”

Khamenei referred to Basij as “the biggest cultural, social, and military network in the world” and said: “Thanks to Basij, these threats are no longer real threats for us.”

In his previous two reactions, Khamenei had strongly attacked the protesters and called them thugs and villains and asked the security forces to do their job.

Two days later, while the protests were still in progress, Khamenei claimed that the “enemy has been defeated.”