Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Tweets On Race Relations, Police Brutality In US

Attacking the U.S. in a series of tweets posted through his English-language Twitter account over the last one week, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei compared the ongoing protests in the U.S. over police shootings of black people to the struggle of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In a number of tweets posted on Christmas Eve, using the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter and #Ferguson, Khamenei accused the U.S. of ignoring the teachings of Jesus and supporting the oppressors.

This is not the first time Khamenei has tweeted about race relations and police brutality in the U.S. Back in August, following the eruption of protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the shooting of black teenager Michael Brown, he had tweeted that African-Americans in the U.S. were “still under pressure, oppressed and subjected to discrimination.”

Earlier in December, after the release of a U.S. Senate report on the use of torture by the CIA, Khamenei had called the U.S. government a “symbol of tyranny.”

Khamenei’s English-language account, which has never been officially verified by Twitter and is reportedly believed to be managed by the Iranian leader’s office, has, in addition to the U.S. government, often attacked Israel and the Islamic State group.