Sister Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Kutuk The Government's Hard Action Against Protesters, Ask Elite Troops To Join In Weapons

Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Wikimedia Commons/Mohamad Sadegh Heydari)

JAKARTA - A sister of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, condemned the government's crackdown on national protests and called on the widely feared Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) to lay down their weapons, according to a letter published by her French-based son.

Iran has been hit by riots since the death of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in a moral police custody on September 16, and faces a three-day general strike movement that began on Monday.

Badri Hosseini Khamenei, who lives in Iran and is the sister of Ayatollah Khamenei, criticized the founding of ulama from the time of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to the reign of his brother, the letter said, dated "December 2022".

"I think now is appropriate to state that I oppose the actions of my brother and I express my sympathy to all mothers who mourn the crimes of the Islamic Republic, from the Khomeini era to the current era of Ali Khamenei's caliphate," he wrote in a letter shared by his son Mahmoud Moradkhani on Twitter on Wednesday., citing Reuters December 7th.

"Revolutionary guards and mercenaries Ali Khamenei must lay down their weapons as soon as possible and join the people before it's too late," the letter said.

Revolutionary Guards are Iran's elite forces that have helped build state proxies in the Middle East, running a vast business empire.

On Tuesday, elite forces shared a statement asking the court to "not show mercy to rioters, thugs and terrorists", as a sign that the authorities have no intention of reducing their crackdown on dissent.

Previously, Khamenei's nephew and activist Farideh Moradkhani was arrested by authorities in November, after asking foreign governments to cut all ties with Tehran.