Iran MP describes Khamenei loyalists as ‘ISIS sympathizers’

Iran’s Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ali Motahari has described a religious hardliner as “defiled and deserves to be executed,” as he responded to his conservative critics who are close to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, on Instagram page by saying: “Go join your ISIS brothers in Mosul.”

Motahari was forced to cancel a planned lecture in the city of Mashhad – controlled by hardliners – after a court order was sent to stop him from speaking.

In the aftermath of the controversial censoring of Motahari, Iranian President Hassan Rowhani ordered his Justice Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi to open an investigation.

Both hardliners and reformists exchanged accusations. Kayhan newspaper headed by Hossein Shariatmadari, said to be close to Khamenei, said that the Iranian government headed by Rowhani exploited the incident and mislead the public opinion to “justify the economic and political failure”.

Iranian President Hassan Rowhani sits at the start of his press conference in Tehran. (File photo: AP)

Reformists accuse deputy leader in the city of Mashhad, Ayatollah Alm al-Huda, of being behind the cancellation of the lecture and shutting down the reformists’ office in the city, while Ayatollah Alm Al-Huda denies any knowledge of the indictment, and threatened to submit a complaint against his accusers in court.

Ahmad Reza Ahmadi, head of the Coordinating Council of Islamic media in the province of Golestan, said that if he happened to meet and shake hands with Motahari, he would definitely “wash his hands” after that as Motahari is “rotten”.

*This article also appears on AlArabiya.net.