TEHRAN: Crowds of Iranians on Friday cut short a speech by late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s grandson who hardliners consider a supporter of the opposition movement.
"Please allow me to speak," Hassan Khomeini pleaded, with crowds chanting slogans against him just as he began to speak on the 21st death anniversary of the founder of the Islamic republic.
"I apologize to the crowd. Time is very short, but some people are not allowing the ceremony to continue," the cleric said.
But the crowd shouted: "We are not people of Kufa to leave Ali alone," referring to the founder of Shia Islam as well as Iran’s current supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The chanting of the crowds virtually prevented Khomeini’s grandson from speaking and after repeated attempts to pacify them, he left the stage.
Several opposition websites have recently posted pictures of Hassan Khomeini alongside opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.
The cleric is believed to have implicitly backed Mousavi during the disputed presidential election last June.
