Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said Iranians would suffer if the country’s theocracy collapsed.
“The day after the establishment of the Islamic Republic, there is no security, no freedom, no welfare in this country,” Khomeini said in an interview with Iranian state media IRIB broadcast on Tuesday.
Khomeini is the grandson of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who oversaw the 1979 revolution and overthrow of Western-installed monarch Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, paving the way for clerical rule.
He claimed that “terrorism” such as ISIS was causing the violence, and said “the events since Thursday evening have nothing to do with the protests.”
“We witnessed (levels of) violence that are not in line with Iranian sensibilities,” he said, according to state media. “It was ISIS-style violence. It seems to me that behind the curtain, a big part of it was ISIS trends coming in from neighboring countries.”
The violence in the protests, which erupted last month against a backdrop of widespread economic grievances, intensified on Thursday night after authorities began a brutal crackdown, cutting off access to the internet and calling protesters “rioters and terrorists.”
“President Trump is turning a blind eye to human rights,” Hassan Khomeini said of President Donald Trump, who said his administration was monitoring deadly protests in Iran and continuing to consider potential military options.
Future Leader? Iran’s current supreme leader is Ayatollah Khamenei, who has been in power since 1989 after the death of his predecessor, Ruhollah Khomeini.
It remains unclear whether Iran’s regime has a future successor, but analysts have cited potential candidates such as the current leader’s son Mojtaba Khamenei and Hassan Khomeini. Both are clergymen.
