Pro and anti-Iran protesters face off at Ayatollah vigil in Manchester
Regime supporters waved Iranian and Palestinian flags, burned a picture of Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and blamed “Zios”
Hundreds of anti-Iran protesters gathered in Manchester on Wednesday at a vigil for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The event saw around one hundred pro-Ayatollah protesters waving the regime’s flag alongside the Palestinian flag, candles, photos of Khamenei, flowers and a handwritten sign declaring: “You can kill a man but you can’t kill an ideology”.
Posters stated the event was supported by the “Friends of Islamic Centre of Manchester”. A photograph of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set alight and another placard said Khamenei had been “Killed at the hands of Zios”.
A counter-protest of around 400 people, including Iranians, played loud music, chanted, waved portraits of Donald Trump and danced to the Village People’s YMCA, (a song popularly associated with Trump’s campaign rallies) in celebration of the American intervention.
They also waved US and Israeli flags, as well as the the pre-1979, Lion and Sun flag of Iran. Others carried pictures of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah of Iran, with a sign saying “Pahlavi will return”.
Greater Manchester Police separated the two sides and said that despite tensions, there was “no significant disruption”.
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