A number of individuals have been arrested amid a conflict between pro-Iranian regime demonstrators, who erected a shrine to the slain Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, the previous supreme chief of Iran, and anti-Khamenei protesters at Washington Sq. Park on Friday, cops stated.
The professional-Khamenei activists, who on the top of their demonstration numbered about 50 individuals, assembled beneath the Washington Sq. Arch, the place they flew Iranian flags and arrange tables, which featured footage of the ayatollah and different revolutionary figures, together with Malcolm X and Congolese politician Patrice Lumumba, in addition to racial-justice figures, like George Floyd.
Assembled in opposition on the north aspect of the arch was an equal variety of anti-Khamenei protesters, a number of of whom have been draped in Israeli and US flags, who may very well be heard chanting, “Khamenei’s lifeless! Khamenei’s lifeless!”
A New York Police Division spokesman couldn’t instantly say how many individuals have been arrested and what they have been charged with.
Witnesses described one incident the place an anti-Khamenei protester jumped a barrier in an effort to grab an indication. The person was reportedly crushed by the pro-Iranian protesters earlier than he was taken into police custody.
Khamenei was assassinated by an Israeli airstrike on Feb. 28 on the outset of a joint Israeli and US operation meant to topple the Iranian authorities.
President Donald Trump on Friday demanded the “unconditional give up” of Iran and the set up of “acceptable” leaders as circumstances to finish the weeklong warfare with Tehran that has unfold throughout the risky Center East.
