Religious Minority Leaders Support Khamenei’s Warmongering

Several leaders of religious minorities, through various letters, expressed support for Khamenei’s warmongering against Israel.

Following the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ missile attack on Israel last week and Israeli officials’ warning of retaliatory strikes against Iran, some government representatives and leaders of religious minorities, by writing separate and collective letters, expressed support for Ali Khamenei’s warmongering against Israel.

Despite the fact that religious minorities are formally recognized in the constitution of the Islamic Republic, we have witnessed in many cases arrests, harassment, long-term imprisonment, sanctions, exile, and many other cases, particularly concerning Armenians and Jews. An issue that has been carried out by the Islamic Republic against religious and sectarian minorities for more than 45 years, and has only supported these individuals when it needed their presence in society.

Records show that the Islamic Republic has used associations, institutions, and prominent figures of religious minorities, particularly Christians and Jews, for propaganda or to strengthen the policies of the Islamic Republic, or has pressured them. Now, leaders of religious and sectarian minorities have declared their support for Ali Khamenei’s warmongering and the regime’s show of force against Israel and other countries.

“Homayoun Sameh Najafabadi,” representative of Kalamis (Jews) in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, who had supported Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel and the massacre of Jews, published a letter on October 9 expressing support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ missile attack on Israel, stating that the Islamic Republic has no fear of Israel and Ali Khamenei’s attendance at Friday prayers on October 4, exactly three days after these attacks, was a display of power to the oppressors.

He also said in his remarks, while warning the governments allied with Israel: “US government officials should note that any slightest aggression by the Zionist regime will undoubtedly be met with a regrettable response from the Islamic Republic.”

“Charlie Enveye-Tekiyeh,” representative of Assyrian Christians in parliament, “Mar Narsai Benjamin,” bishop of the Assyrian Church of the East, “Mar Imad Khoshabe,” bishop of the Assyrian Catholic and Chaldean Church, and Reverend “Ninos Moghaddas-Nia,” superintendent of the Assyrian Evangelical Church in Tehran, also issued a joint letter in which, using harsh language against Israel, expressed support for the Islamic Republic system and Ali Khamenei regarding war against Israel and emphasized the Islamic Republic’s readiness to respond against Israel.