Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the founder of Iran’s Islamic republic, has said that if the country’s theocratic regime were to fall, Iranians would suffer.
“The day after the Islamic Republic, there is no security, freedom, or welfare in the country,” Khomeini said in an interview with Iran state media IRIB broadcast Tuesday.
Khomeini is the grandson of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who oversaw the 1979 revolution and the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a Western-installed monarch, paving the way for clerical rule.
He claimed an ISIS-like “terrorism” was driving the unrest, saying “the events of Thursday evening and onward had nothing to do with protests.”
Violence in the protests, which exploded last month over widespread economic grievances, ramped up Thursday night after authorities cut internet access and launched a brutal crackdown on protesters, whom they have called “rioters and terrorists.”
On US President Donald Trump – who has said his administration is monitoring the deadly protests in Iran and is continuing to weigh potential military options – Hassan Khomeini said, “Trump closes his own eyes on the issue of human rights.”
Future leaders? Iran’s current Supreme Leader is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has been in power since 1989 following the death of his predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
It remains unclear whether Iran’s establishment has any future successors but analysts cite potential candidates like Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the current leader, as well as Hassan Khomeini. Both are themselves clerics.
