An opponent of the regime carries a poster of Ayatollah Khamenei and his feared number of victims in the latest wave of uprisings at a demonstration in Rome. image: keystone
interview
The exiled Iranian Mahmoud Moradkhani knows the Iranian regime’s strong man, Ayatollah Khamenei, very well: the despotic revolutionary leader is his uncle. And he is capable of anything, says the doctor.
Jan 20, 2026, 5:13 p.mJan 20, 2026, 5:13 p.m
Stefan Brändle, Paris / ch media
You fled to France after the Islamic Revolution and live there as a doctor. Do you have any news from Iran despite the information blackout?
Mahmoud Moradkhani: Very little seeps through. My sister was able to call me from Tehran a few days ago to tell me that she and her family were doing well. That’s a lot, given the massive repression.
The demonstrations seem to be more and more contained, but there is talk of 3,400 deaths. An outrageous number.
I’ve heard of numbers that are much higher: there could be up to 10,000 or even 12,000 dead. The Revolutionary Guards are said to have fired machine guns into the crowd. Such a reaction from this despotic regime was foreseeable at the latest when telephones and the Internet were stopped.
His uncle is the Ayatollah Khamenei: exiled Iranian Mahmoud Moradkhani. picture: zvg
Also the brutality of their actions?
The revolutionary leader Ali Khamenei shoots at the demonstrators because he feels superior to them. He seriously believes that he has the moral right on his side. However, this is not new either. The Shiite mullahs also consider themselves superior to the Sunnis or Wahhabis. That was part of the reason for war against Iraq, and that’s why Tehran is supporting Gaza – not because the regime is pro-Palestinian, but because it wants to extend Shiite influence to the Mediterranean.
Ali Khamenei is her uncle. Did you know him well?
Yes, the Ayatollah was close to our family in Meshhed (population four million; editor’s note) when he was still a junior mullah at a mosque. He was a kind, affable uncle who took part in poetry evenings and enjoyed reading the Koran without showing any hint of radical sentiment. Everything changed when he went to Tehran and came to power there. That was in 1989, when his predecessor Khomeini died ten years after the Islamic revolution in Iran.
How did your uncle get into this leadership position?
President Hashemi Rafsanjani favored him because he thought Khamenei, as a spiritual leader, was easy to direct and manipulate. He was very wrong: the new Ayatollah turned out to be a power-hungry and megalomaniacal dictator who soon believed his own lies. Most people had underestimated him because of his hypocritical nature. Ali Khamenei courted my family, who supported the Islamic revolution for six months after the fall of the Shah before going into opposition. But we didn’t let ourselves be persuaded; We knew that behind the friendly facade, Khamenei was a smart, evil person.
Today he is 86. Is his time running out?
Based on his good health, I estimate he has a few more years left.
Also thanks to the Revolutionary Guard, the power factor in Iran? Are they still loyal to the Ayatollah?
The guardians of the Islamic revolution, the Pasdaran, control politics, the economy and society; They and their militias shot thousands at the demonstrations. But they are nothing without the mullahs. If you want to understand Iran, you have to know one thing: for Iranians, the religious aspect is crucial. Without a spiritual Islamic leader, the people – including the Pasdaran – feel lost. That’s why they still stick with the Ayatollah.
What if Ali Khamenei dies from natural or other causes?
Then there will undoubtedly be a power struggle within the regime, because the last revolutionaries of 1979, such as Khomeini and Khamenei, have died out.
Even though the mullahs have once again brought the insurgents to their knees, it is still a sign of weakness to allow their own people to be massacred.
The Ayatollahs have now used force to suppress the fourth uprising. Of course this leaves its mark; but Iran is a complex entity. As I said, the mullahs did not fall from the moon, they respond to a religious need, especially among the rural population. They do not want a separation of church and state, as France has achieved.
The opposition also doesn’t seem united.
It is very divided, partly because individual factions like the Mujahideen are not secular. The Shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, in exile in the United States, is unable to rally the nation behind him. He’s not a bad person, but he’s clumsy.
Many people shouted his name in the demonstrations.
Maybe for lack of better alternatives. They weren’t very numerous either. I remember the Islamic revolution of 1979 – millions took to the streets. That wasn’t the case last week: While people demonstrated in individual cities, traffic in the next streets continued as if nothing had happened. No, Ali Khamenei can only be overthrown if the opposition before the demonstrations come together, organize and first then goes on the street. Last week it was the other way around: there were demonstrations without the resistance being organized. This can’t go well.
But aren’t Iranians angry at their regime, under which life is becoming prohibitively expensive?
The anger of the people is not enough for a revolution. Neither is hunger and misery. In the Islamic Revolution of 1979, bazaar traders had enough resources to last nine months in the fight against the Shah’s regime. Today people no longer have any reserves. That’s why many stayed at home. They waited to see whether the Americans would intervene.
Do the Iranians want US intervention?
Most demonstrators certainly hoped so. But in contrast to the air strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities in mid-2025, the Americans were now no more prepared for the protests than the Iranian opposition. Donald Trump is a poker player without a plan. To topple a regime that has 40 years of experience stifling internal protests requires a little more preparation. Especially since the Gulf states warned against US intervention for fear of Iranian reprisals.
Did Trump at least prevent the 800 announced executions with his threats?
It is quite possible that the regime in Tehran has made certain assurances. But at the same time, Ali Khamenei announced at the weekend that he would “break the backs” of the insurgents.