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The Ayatollah Supports Occupy Wall Street

The Ayatollah Supports Occupy Wall Street

"...[the] corrupt foundation has been exposed to the American people."

The Occupy Wall Street movement continues to draw overseas political attention.

Iran's top leader said Wednesday that the wave of protests reflects a serious crisis that will ultimately topple capitalism in America. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed the United States is now in a full-blown crisis because its "corrupt foundation has been exposed to the American people."

"They (U.S. government) may crack down on this movement but cannot uproot it," CBS News reports Khamenei saying. "Ultimately, it will grow so that it will bring down the capitalist system and the West."

The remarks came a day after U.S. officials have claimed that Iran plotted to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador into a new global campaign to isolate the Islamic republic.

Protesters in New York plan to gather at the headquarters of JP Morgan Chase, where they'll continue to decry the expiration of the state's 2 percent "millionaires' tax" in December.

Meanwhile, the lawyer for a woman pepper sprayed during an action last month is demanding that the Manhattan district attorney prosecute an NYPD deputy inspector on an assault charge. Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the matter is being investigated by police internal affairs and the Civilian Complaint Review Board.

Occupy Seattle demonstrators sent the mayor a list of demands, including approval for large tents to be used as a kitchen, infirmary, storage area and information center — and written approval of long-term occupancy. (Apparently they have become something of a weaponless, makeshift army.)

In Washington, six people were arrested Tuesday for storming a Senate office building. More than 125 protesters in Boston were arrested after they ignored warnings to move from a downtown green space, police said.Khamenei went on to praise the protests, and called them a consequence of “the prevalence of top-level corruption, poverty and social inequality in America,” reports The New York Times.

Khamenei has also criticized “the heavy-handed treatment of the demonstrators by U.S. officials," saying that such treatment “is not seen even in underdeveloped countries with dictatorial regimes."

Khamenei's remarks were not the first from Iranian officials. Earlier, Gen. Masoud Jazayeri of Iran's Revolutionary Guard said the protests spreading from New York's Wall Street to other U.S. cities are the beginning of an "American Spring," likening them to the uprisings that toppled Arab autocrats in the Middle East.

"The failure of the U.S. president to resolve the Wall Street crisis will turn this economic movement into a political and social movement protesting the very structure of the U.S. government," the official IRNA news agency quoted Jazayeri as saying Sunday.

"A revolution and a comprehensive movement against corruption in the U.S. is in the making. The last phase will be the collapse of the Western capitalist system," he said, according to IRNA.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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