Tehran: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has again evoked American racism to attack U.S. foreign policy, likening the international actions of Washington to domestic police brutality.
Khamenei issued an official message Wednesday to mark the Hajj season, expressing his support for protesters in the U.S. who are demanding reforms to address police brutality and systemic racism within the American system.
“In the recent events in the U.S. and the anti-racism movement, our decisive stance is to support the people and condemn the cruel behaviour of the racist government of that country,” Khamenei said according to the Tehran Times.
“The U.S.’s treatment of the weak nations is a magnified version of the behaviour of that police officer who kneeled on the neck of a defenceless black man and pressed him to death,” Khamenei continued, referring to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis by police officers in May.
Iranian officials have regularly voiced their support for the protest movement in the U.S., while simultaneously suppressing anti-government dissent at home. Earlier this month, authorities throttled internet access to try and stop viral demands for an end to executions in the country after several anti-government protesters were sentenced to death.