Iran’s ‘paper tiger’ leadership will fall, predicts Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi
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Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi was speaking at an interview in London, where she has lived in self-imposed exile since 2009.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
- Shirin Ebadi says Iran's war with Israel exposed the leadership's weakness, calling them a "paper tiger."
- Ebadi predicts Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's peaceful overthrow due to loss of public trust.
- Post-war, Ebadi claims the regime fears renewed protests and is arresting people to compensate for defeat.
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LONDON - Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi said on June 25 that Iran’s war with Israel had revealed the weakness of its “paper tiger” leadership, predicting that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would be toppled in a peaceful revolution.
She spoke a day after a shaky ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump
“The people of Iran and the world saw that and realised what a paper tiger this administration is,” Ms Ebadi told Reuters in an interview in London, where she has lived in self-imposed exile since 2009.
Ms Ebadi, a lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her work defending human rights, has been a staunch critic of the Shi’ite Muslim clerical establishment that has ruled Iran since 1979.
Security officials said Ayatollah Khamenei, 86, went into hiding during the conflict, which wiped out the top echelon of Iran’s military leadership and killed its leading nuclear scientists.
“The people will not trust a leader who hides during times of war,” Ms Ebadi said. She said previous protests, such as those around the death of Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini
“I predict the people will succeed this time around and this regime will be gone.”
There have been no signs of significant street protests against the Islamic Republic, with relief dominating the first response of many Iranians to the ceasefire.
While Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, a relative moderate, has said the atmosphere of national solidarity during Israel’s attacks would spur domestic reform, hardline security organs have also moved swiftly to demonstrate their control
“The regime is trying to compensate for its defeat by arresting the people,” Ms Ebadi said.
“Because it fears that now that it has been defeated in this war, the people will find more courage and take to the streets.” REUTERS
