KHAMENEI SCORES POINTS WITH CRITICS

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appears to have scored a political success by gathering leading clerics in the religious bastion of Qom around him in a show of unity after months of in-fighting.

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August 16, 2022

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appears to have scored a political success by gathering leading clerics in the religious bastion of Qom around him in a show of unity after months of in-fighting. Iranian media highlighted pictures on October 21 of a smiling Khamenei sitting with several top Shiite Muslim dignitaries, including some who have been critical since the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year. The images reinforced Khamenei’s call for Iranians to unite against foreign enemies he accused of trying to destabilise the country through economic sanctions and denying it the right to advanced nuclear technology. “Our enemies want to make people disillusioned with the system…They portray a dark and gloomy horizon of the future,” he told a crowd in his first speech in Qom. “National unity is very important and must be strengthened with every passing day… and by that I am addressing both officials and ordinary people. We should take it seriously.”