TEHRAN — Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), said on Thursday that the “racist” Zionist regime should be more concerned than any state with the collapse of racist symbols.

“Now that the call for ‘the most pious of you is your supremacy before God’ has been heard globally after centuries, #racist #Zionist regime should be more concerned than any state with the collapse of racist symbols,” Shamkhani tweeted.

Now that the call for " the most pious of you is your supremacy before God " has been heard globally after centuries, #racist #Zionist regime should be more concerned than any state with the collapse of racist symbols; They know it's their turn after the statues.#alllivesmatter

— علی شمخانی (@alishamkhani_ir) June 11, 2020

“They know it’s their turn after the statues,” he said, using the hashtag #alllivesmatter.

In the past couple of days, Confederate statues and statues of other historical figures, including slave traders and Christopher Columbus, have toppled throughout the U.S. and around the world.

According to The New York Times, this follows years of debate about public display of Confederate symbols, following the 2015 murder of nine black church congregants in Charleston, S.C., by a Confederate-flag-bearing white supremacist, and the deadly clash in 2017 between white nationalists and counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Va., over the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee.

It came after weeks of protests over entrenched racism in the United States, reignited by the killing of George Floyd.

Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. A video of the incident shows Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes as the 46-year-old pleaded: “I can't breathe.”

Following the killing, protests erupted in at least 140 U.S. cities, with thousands of people taking to the streets against police violence. 

National Guard troops were activated in more than 20 states, and several cities imposed temporary curfews.

On Wednesday, Floyd's brother testified at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on issues of racial profiling, police brutality and lost trust between police departments and the communities they serve.

“I’m tired. I’m tired of the pain I’m feeling now and I’m tired of the pain I feel every time another Black person is killed for no reason,” Philonise Floyd said during his testimony.

“Teach them what necessary force is,” he says. “Teach them that necessary force should be used rarely, and only when life is at risk.”

MH/PA