Iranian Official Close To Leader Issues Rare Warning Over Crackdown

Mojtaba Khamenei (left) walks behind his father, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (file photo)

A senior Iranian official close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has harshly criticized the policies of the Islamic republic's leadership in a video interview.

Mohammad Sarafaraz, the former head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), the state-run entity that oversees all radio and TV broadcasting in the country, said in an interview that the government had "faced a misery that cannot respond to the smallest demands of the people."

The interview, a rare warning from an official appointed by Khamenei, came in a conversation with Shahrazad Mirqolikhan that was published on YouTube.

It also comes amid a wave of unrest over the death of a young woman while in police custody for allegedly wearing a head scarf improperly that has rocked the nation to its core. The government has met the protests with a brutal and violent crackdown.

"This method of beating and arresting and killing will not work and sooner or later it will reach a dead end and it must be stopped," Sarafraz added.

Mohammad Sarafraz was head of the IRIB from 2014 until his resignation in 2016. He is currently a member of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, a government body for controlling and exercising government power on the Internet. Its members are appointed by Khamenei.

Referring to the supreme leader's son, Sarafraz said that "the method Mojtaba Khamenei has chosen to rule is wrong. This method of putting pressure on the people and not paying attention to their political and economic demands and their legitimate freedoms will not work."

"I know that some kind of incident may happen to me by saying these words, I have also written a will," Sarafraz added in the interview.

There are rumors that Mojtaba Khamenei, Khamenei's influential son, is being groomed as a successor to his father despite what some consider a lack of credentials.

The rumors first emerged during mass anti-government protests following a disputed presidential election in 2009. He became the target of slogans by opposition activists during the rallies, with some chanting: "Mojtaba, may you die and not become the supreme leader!"

He was rumored to have been involved in the brutal crackdown on protesters that year.

Recently, opposition politician Mirhossein Musavi asked Khamenei to deny the rumors and whether he is against passing the leadership down to family members.

The current protests, which have snowballed into one of the biggest threats to the clerical establishment that has ruled since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, started after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died on September 16, three days after being detained in Tehran by the morality police for allegedly breaching Iran's strict rules on head scarves.

The activist HRANA news agency said that, as of November 29, at least 459 protesters had been killed during the unrest, including 64 minors, as security forces try to stifle widespread dissent.

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda