In his first public comments on the civil unrest stemming from 22-year-old Mahsa Amini's death in Iranian police custody, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, "This rioting was planned." He added, "These riots and the insecurity were engineered by America and the occupying, false Zionist regime [Israel], as well as their paid agents." He said Amini's death "broke our hearts".