Ali Khamenei, Iran's former Supreme Leader, has been laid to rest at the shrine of Imam Reza in his home city of Mashhad after a week-long funeral ceremony across five Iranian cities and two counties. As thousands of people attended the funeral processions, Iranian officials and policymakers said that Khamenei's death in the US-Israel strikes has "united the people of Iran" and "silenced" all those who had risen against the government in January.
Professor Seyed Emamain, Founder of Governance and Policy Thinktank (GPTT), and Ali Salehian, Head of the International Department GPTT, have spoken to NDTV about the mass uprising against Khamenei's rule in January to mass support after his death.
"The death of Ali Khamenei has revolutionised Iranian society. Iranian society was involved in domestic politics, having diversified views with regard to political and cultural issues. As the war brought about an existential threat to the Iranian people and to the sovereignty and integrity of Iran, the society as a whole came to the conclusion that it's time to defend the country and civilisation," said Seyed Emamain.
He said when US President Donald Trump threatened that Iranian civilisation would be "wiped out", Iranian people came together to fight back and defend Iran's sovereignty and integrity.
"What we saw in the last four months is a revolution," he said.
Ali Salehain said that over 4,000 civilians were killed in Iran during the war, including 170 children at the Minab school. He said it was a turning point in the country.
"You may have a different political view, but when people saw that children were being killed just for fun, all Iranians made a united front against a foreign invader. Regardless of political views, when people see that a foreign invader is attacking them, they all decide to be united," he said.
Before Khamenei's death, Iran was facing civilian unrest, demanding an end to his rule. Thousands of these people were reportedly killed in a major military crackdown in January. While the war and the killing of Khamenei appear to have silenced critics and ended the internal crisis, Emamain claimed that protests and unrest were backed by foreign forces, including Israel's Mossad.
"What happened on January 8, as an academician and thinktanker, I will not deny some domestic disagreements amongst the Iranians. It was also because of some deep economic problems faced by the people of Iran due to decades of US sanctions. But the unrest was organised by Mossad agents," he said.
He said the January uprising was a very challenging time for Iranian national security. "It was a very sophisticated warfare machinery designed by Israelis and the US to topple the Iranian regime but also to divide Iranian territorial integrity," he said.
"The Iranian government has to assure people that deterrence is now revived and the aggressor has been punished," Emamain said.
During the war, Iran has launched missile and drone attacks on American bases in Gulf countries, including Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
"Our war is not with our neighbours. We have been living together for thousands of years. But the problem is US military bases - if they want peace, let them ask the US to vacate these bases. Our problem is the US bases, not our neighbours," Salehain said.
