A statement released today attributed to Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, contains some familiar regime talking points while leaving some wondering where the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who led the oil-laden country for 36 years, actually is.
Pedram Hamidi, who grew up in Iran under the existing regime, is doubtful of the significance of the first purported message from Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
“He’s irrelevant,” Hamidi told CNN Thursday. “We’re fighting the IRGC at this point.”
Hamidi also finds it difficult to believe the newly named ayatollah is even alive.
“There’s not even a single video of it,” he said. Not even from a bunker, he added.
Hamidi, who now lives in Canada, previously spoke with CNN in January amidst a series of anti-government protests in Iran. His parents live in Iran with currently no internet access. They’re scared because “bombs are dropping – but at the same time they want something to be done,” he said.
In Iran, people knew Mojtaba Khamenei as someone who pushed for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to win the 2005 presidential election, Hamidi said.
“After that people knew Mojtaba as the most politically involved child of Ali Khamenei. So, we knew he was kind of being groomed to become the next leader,” he said.
On Khamenei’s statement saying the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed, Hamidi believes the regime’s tactic is “trying to increase the economic and political price of this war on Trump so he basically quits, declares success and victory and just leaves.”
Similarly, New York resident Elie Bassalian doesn’t put a ton of weight to the words attributed to Khamenei.
“Nothing’s really going to change unless they get new leadership,” he said. “I don’t really dwell on any words that they say.”
Bassalian simply points to the existing regime as continuing to promote their propaganda.
His parents and grandparents immigrated to New York from Iran before the 1979 revolution. Though he’s never been to Iran himself, he feels close ties to it.
“We’re proudly Jewish, we’re also proudly American and we’re also proud of our Iranian background,” he said. “When we get together for our Sabbath, we’re Jewish and we’re doing all the Jewish rituals, but we’re eating Persian food.”
“I’m hoping that America succeeds and Israel succeeds,” he said.
