Omid Sarlak and Iran’s Supreme Leader
Originally written for The Guardian:
US Citizen Hekmati, 70, Sentenced to 4 Years Over Trip to Israel in 2012
The death of a young Iranian man who had filmed himself burning a photograph of the country’s supreme leader has sparked a war of words between state media and activists over how he died.
Government-sanctioned news websites reported that Omid Sarlak, who was in his 20s, had been found in his car on Saturday in western Iran with a gunshot wound to his head and traces of gunpowder on his hands. Iranian police said Sarlak had “died by suicide”.
But anti-government media and activists say the timing of the death, so soon after he made a public outcry against the government, raises suspicions about whether he was killed for his views.
Hours before Sarlak’s body was found, a video posted on his social media account showed him burning the photo of the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.
The furor presents a threat to the regime, with Sarlak becoming an icon for activists, many of whom have followed him by burning Khamenei’s photo in solidarity and posting the videos online.
Suspicions have grown after a widely circulated video showed Sarlak’s father reportedly saying at the site of his son’s death: “They killed my champion here.” An off-screen voice in the same clip was heard saying he was “surrounded and shot”.
Later, in a televised interview aired by state media, Sarlak’s father requested people to “not pay attention to what’s circulating on social media and to let the judicial authorities handle the matter”. Activists have called the video forced and said the family was under surveillance.
Hundreds of mourners who attended Sarlak’s funeral on Monday demonstrated and chanted slogans such as “Death to the Dictator” and “Death to Khamenei”.
In the clip shared on Instagram by Sarlak hours before his death, a recording is audible in the background of a speech by Iran’s former Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In 1979, Pahlavi fled Iran, with the Islamic government taking power the same year. Some anti-government activists are nostalgic for the monarchy.
On another one of his last Instagram stories, Sarlak wrote: “How long should we endure humiliation, poverty and being ridden over? This is the moment to show yourself, young people. These clerics are nothing but a stream for Iran’s youth to cross.”
Sarlak was a student of aviation and an amateur boxer who was a fan of the Iranian wrestler Ebrahim Eshaghi. Eshaghi told the Guardian Sarlak had contacted him on Instagram shortly before he died. “He sent me a message that his life was in danger and that if anything were to happen to him, we should be his voice.”
Iran’s New Threat: ‘2000 Missiles at Once’: https://www.newsweek.com/irans-new-threat-2000-missiles-at-once-11020835
“Iran is accelerating its missile production with the stated goal of being able to fire 2,000 missiles at once in any future confrontation with Israel, aiming to overwhelm the country’s advanced defense systems.”
The report, however, is likely nonsense. Iran cannot fire all of its ballistic missiles simultaneously and it wouldn’t want to expend all of them in one go either, even if this did overwhelm Israeli defenses. But Iran could benefit from firing larger salvos than last time.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQOt82mk9TV/?igsh=ZDM3aXpvbHUwaGh1
‘They Killed My Champion’: Mourning Turns To Protest In Small Iranian Town
https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-omid-sarlak-burial-khamenei-protest/33581106.html
Nooshe jan! (enjoy)
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQnzwV6iJaa/?igsh=MTl4N3djZ3Z1cXV1dw%3D%3D
Iran oil exports near 2.3 Mln bpd, highest since 2018: TankerTrackers: https://www.iranoilgas.com/news/details.aspx?id=28252&title=Iran+oil+exports+near+2.3+Mln+bpd%2C+highest+since+2018%3A+TankerTrackers
“Over the past four weeks, Iran has exported nearly 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) — levels not seen since the first half of 2018, according to TankerTrackers”.
Iran, however, may be offering a large discount to its customers.
Dangerous stalemate over Iran’s nuclear program: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/09/world/middleeast/iran-nuclear-program-israel.html
“Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, enough to make 11 nuclear weapons, is either buried under rubble, as Iran claims, or has been spirited away to a safe place, as Israeli officials believe.,,,,Iran also appears to be continuing to work on a new enrichment site known as Pickaxe Mountain. It has refused to give international inspectors access to that site or any other suspected nuclear sites other than those already declared….The result is a dangerous stalemate — with no negotiations, no certainty over Iran’s stockpile, no independent oversight. And many in the Gulf believe that makes another Israeli attack on Iran almost inevitable, given Israeli officials’ long-held view that Iran’s nuclear program is an existential threat…..Iran is likely to respond to any Israeli attack in a far less restrained way than it did in June, said Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group. Iranian officials have told him that missile factories are working 24 hours a day, he said, and if there is another war, they hope to fire 2,000 at once to overwhelm Israeli defenses, not 500 over 12 days as they did in June.”
The regime’s story does not amount to anything from the scene, as usual. He was shot up front in the *face*, according to a western coroner feedback it is very unusual thing to do, hardly any blood in the car….how does being shot anywhere in the head inside a car does not create splatter of blood all over???