Anger in Tehran after Abduction of Son of Prominent Shirazi Cleric

Protesters rallied outside the Iranian embassy in London against the arrest of the son of a prominent Shi'ite cleric. (Getty Images)
Protesters rallied outside the Iranian embassy in London against the arrest of the son of a prominent Shi'ite cleric. (Getty Images)
TT

Anger in Tehran after Abduction of Son of Prominent Shirazi Cleric

Protesters rallied outside the Iranian embassy in London against the arrest of the son of a prominent Shi'ite cleric. (Getty Images)
Protesters rallied outside the Iranian embassy in London against the arrest of the son of a prominent Shi'ite cleric. (Getty Images)

Protests against Iranian authorities erupted in Kuwait, Iraq and London after Iranian intelligence attacked the convoy of prominent Shi’ite cleric Sadegh Hossein Shirazi and later arrested his son, Hossein, on Wednesday.

Clan leaders in Iraq, including the Bodrag clan, pleaded with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to release Hossein, accusing him with being behind his abduction.

Shirazi enjoys Shi’ite followers in the Gulf and Iraq’s Karbala, the place of origin of the Shirazi family. The Shirazis are one of the Shi’ite authorities that enjoy clout among Arab Shi’ites and they act in relative independence from Iranian powers and they have repeatedly been oppressed by Iranian authorities.

Iranian intelligence had in February summoned Hossein Shirazi after he gave a lecture to dozens of students about the Vilayet al-Faqih principle, which he linked to imposing a dictatorship under the pretext of religion.

He also compared Khamenei to ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, prompting authorities to order his arrest.

After a lengthy investigation, Hossein Shirazi was released, but arrested again on Wednesday.

Shirazi’s office said that an intelligence patrol had intercepted the cleric’s convoy, which was also escorting his son Hossein, as he was returning from his studies. The authorities arrested Hossein after humiliating and threatening to taser him.

The demeaning arrest angered Shirazi’s followers, prompting the protests.

A witness in London, said that one of the demonstrators tried to storm the Iranian embassy to condemn the arrest.

The Iranian foreign ministry acknowledged the protests in front of its embassy in London, refuting however claims that the building had been occupied.

A spokesman said that so-called assailants had only managed to climb the embassy’s balcony, calling on British police to perform their duties to protect Iranian diplomatic missions and arrest the attackers.

An aide at the foreign ministry filed a complaint to the British ambassador over the unrest.



Iran’s Supreme Leader Threatens Israel and US with ‘Crushing Response’ over Israeli Attack

 In this photo released by an official website of the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd during a meeting with school and university students, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
In this photo released by an official website of the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd during a meeting with school and university students, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
TT

Iran’s Supreme Leader Threatens Israel and US with ‘Crushing Response’ over Israeli Attack

 In this photo released by an official website of the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd during a meeting with school and university students, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
In this photo released by an official website of the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd during a meeting with school and university students, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

Iran's supreme leader on Saturday threatened Israel and the US with “a crushing response” over attacks on Iran and its allies.

Ali Khamenei spoke as Iranian officials are increasingly threatening to launch yet another strike against Israel after its Oct. 26 attack on the country that targeted military bases and other locations and killed at least five people.

Any further attacks from either side could engulf the wider Middle East, already teetering over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, into a wider regional conflict just ahead of the US presidential election this Tuesday.

“The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation and to the resistance front," Khamenei said in video released by Iranian state media.

The supreme leader did not elaborate on the timing of the threatened attack, nor the scope. The US military operates throughout the Middle East, with some troops now manning a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery in Israel.

The 85-year-old Khamenei had struck a more cautious approach in earlier remarks, saying officials would weigh Iran’s response and that Israel’s attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed.”

But efforts by Iran to downplay the attack faltered as satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press showed attacks damaged military bases near Tehran linked to the country's ballistic missile program, as well as damage at a Revolutionary Guard base used in satellite launches.

Iran's allies, called the “Axis of Resistance” by Tehran, also have been severely hurt by ongoing Israeli attacks, particularly Lebanon's Hezbollah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iran long has used those groups as both an asymmetrical way to attack Israel and as a shield against a direct assault. Some analysts believe those groups want Iran to do more to back them militarily.

Iran, however, has been dealing with its own problems at home, as its economy struggles under the weight of international sanctions and it has faced years of widespread, multiple protests.

Gen. Mohammad Ali Naini, a spokesman for Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard which controls the ballistic missiles needed to target Israel, gave an interview published by the semiofficial Fars news agency just before Khamenei's remarks were released. In it, he warned Iran's response "will be wise, powerful and beyond the enemy’s comprehension.”

“The leaders of the Zionist regime should look out from the windows of their bedrooms and protect their criminal pilots within their small territory,” he warned.

Khamenei on Saturday met with university students to mark Students Day, which commemorates a Nov. 4, 1978, incident in which Iranian soldiers opened fire on students protesting the rule of the shah at Tehran University. The shooting killed and wounded several students and further escalated the tensions consuming Iran at the time that eventually led to the shah fleeing the country and the 1979 revolution.

The crowd offered a raucous welcome to Khamenei, chanting: “The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader!” Some also made a hand gesture — similar to a “timeout” signal — given by the slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in 2020 in a speech in which he threatened that American troops who arrived in the Mideast standing up would “return in coffins” horizontally.