The murder of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the beginning of the US-Israel bombing campaign in Iran made him a martyr and killed the grassroots movement that was challenging the oppressive regime of the Islamic Republic. It is more crucial than ever that we stand with the Iranian, as well as Palestinian and Lebanese, people against the ruling classes of the west trying to find legitimacy for this war.

On February 28, the Israeli-American war on Iran started. Bombs started falling on Iran. The same bombs that decimated Gaza. The same bombs that had fallen and are falling on Lebanon. The same bombs that had, in previous years, fallen on Iraq, as the culmination of the strategy that included decades of crippling sanctions, decapitation, total destruction and occupation. The same strategy that was also partly followed during the 12-day war on Iran in June 2025.

The martyring of a brutal dictator

This time however, with a significant difference: The killing of the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the month of Ramadan; the month of the martyrdom of the first Shia Imam: Imam Ali, and by doing so, elevating him to the immortal status of the martyred Imam Ali of the 21st century for his religious and political believers not just in Iran but for the Shia population abroad from Iraq to India alike.

Why do I talk about this though? It’s because I want to focus on the people of Iran, their political ambitions and their civil movements during the past four decades. The newly martyred Imam Ali is the same person who, as the supreme leader of Iran, had presided over numerous acts of suppression of people’s voices not shying from using brutal tactics; from forced exile and banning from work to imprisonment, torture, and execution.

The last time that such civil opposition to his rule was met with the “no mercy” response leading to the killing of at least 7,000 civilians, according to the human rights groups, was not long ago (during the two days of January 8 and 9, 2026).

It was not long after these brutal killings however that Memorials for the slain were turned into protest actions and students, teachers, nurses, workers and artists started organising actions against the Islamic Republic and its policies be it related to economic hardship, partly rooted in the unprecedentedly harsh sanctions imposed on the country, or the socio-political demands rooted in injustices and lack of regards of the regime for workers’ rights, women’s rights and the rights of ethnic minorities.

The bombs killed Khamenei and the Iranian grassroots movement

And then, the bombs started falling. Bombs that targeted not just the top layers of the ruling class but also, as per the colonial playbook used in Palestine and Lebanon, schools, hospitals, sports facilities, energy infrastructure, etc. In fact, in their first round of bombing, they killed more than 170 primary school children. 

As a result, Khamenei became an immortalised martyr and a death blow was delivered to the grassroots movement of the people of Iran, in one act. This is when the propaganda of the colonial war machine including the voice of the Israeli-supported Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former exposed shah of Iran, is shamelessly drowning the anti-war voices of the Iranian people while they are enduring a war that seems to have no viable agenda or plan apart from destruction.

Stand against illegal, illegitimate wars

This illegal criminal war, with the exception of Spain, is decisively supported by the European leaders in different forms and various degrees. It is thus critical that we, the people who fight for peace and solidarity, amplify the anti-war voices and it is equally essential to identify, expose, block and oppose all the routes the ruling classes in Europe use to enable, maintain and justify the war on Iran.   

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