Khamenei’s death a ‘step forward,’ regime will ‘have to disappear,’ says nephew

The death of Iran’s former supreme leader Ali Khamenei in Israel and US strikes on the country offers it hope, his nephew, a France-based doctor opposed to the regime, tells AFP.

“Like most Iranians, I am happy,” Mahmoud Moradkhani, the son of one of Khamenei’s sisters, says by telephone from his home in northern France.

“I am very happy about the death of Ali Khamenei. I think it’s a step forward, a hope,” he says.

“War and military interventions slow down a bit political process, which is a bit regrettable, but maybe we had to go through this step,” says the 62-year-old.

He predicts that the regime is unlikely to survive Khamenei’s killing.

“The regime’s internal rivalries are such and it won’t be able to resist them, it’ll have to disappear and give the power to the people,” he says.

He adds: “I hope that the military interventions will cease and that the people will be able to express themselves in the streets. It is very difficult in this situation to ask the people to take to the streets, to demonstrate, and to overthrow the regime.”