ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian authorities are intensifying pressure against the Sunni clerical establishment in the country as the Islamic regime faces one of its worst security and economic crises since its foundation in 1979.
Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi, top Sunni leader of the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, said in his Friday sermon that the Balochis are under increased “political and security pressures.” He attributed the rising crackdown to the appointment of "extremist individuals” in the provincial authority of the region, warning that the continuation of the approach could lead to a surge in "dissatisfaction and instability.”
Sunni Muslims and other minorities in Iran have come under intense state crackdown since February 28, when the United States and Israel launched massive aerial campaigns targeting thousands of sites across the country before a Pakistani-brokered ceasefire tenuously halted the conflict on April 8.
Another Sunni Friday leader from the province, Fazl-ur-Rehman Koohi, has fled Iran following threats of arrest last week, according to Haalvsh, a rights group focused on Balochi areas in Iran.
Meanwhile, Naser Bakerzade, a young Kurdish man who was accused of gathering information on Iranian politicians and filming sensitive locations, was executed on Thursday.
“My first crime is that I am Kurdish and my second is that I am Sunni,” he said in a leaked voice recording days before he was executed.
In addition to preventing access to global internet for the past 60 days, the Iranian authorities have expanded arrest waves and expedited pending trials.