Iran’s president accused the US on Thursday of conducting a “failed policy of destabilisation” targeting his nation after Iranians in cities nationwide protested the death of a 22-year-old woman in the custody of the country’s morality police.

President Ebrahim Raisi’s repeated comments have tried to blame the demonstrations sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini as a Western plot, even as school-age protesters remove their mandatory headscarves, or hijabs. They come after protests in cities across Iran on Wednesday, with videos circulating of security forces apparently firing toward demonstrators and using violence to put down the dissent.