At 10:50 p.m. on September 17, 1992, three armed men entered the Mykonos restaurant in Berlin and murdered three leaders of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, injuring three others. The trial of the culprits lasted five years. After the German court issued its verdict on April 10, 1997, in which it accused Khamenei, Rafsanjani, Velayati and then minister of intelligence Ali Fallahian of involvement in the assassinations, all members of the European Union recalled their ambassadors from Tehran.

Six days later Khamenei called the verdict “puppetry” that had been imposed on Iran by the United States and Israel. He predicted that “ten to fifteen years from now, U.S. and European agents will confess in their memoirs that they were the true culprits. The Americans believed that the reason Iran has resisted the U.S. is due to Europe’s support, which is why it planned this conspiracy to rupture relations between Iran and Europe. But Iran will not surrender to Western powers. The Iranian people’s trust in the German government was also absolutely ruined [by the verdict]. We have become self-sufficient in many areas, and thus need no government. The [Iranian] government should not hurry to reestablish relations.”

Regarding the accused that had been convicted, Khamenei said, “Those poor young people are imprisoned there. If they really have committed any crime, they should be given a fair trial and their verdict should also be announced.”

Foreign Ministers of the European Union condemned Iran on April 29, 1997, but the next day Khamenei called it, “useless, impolite and wrong,” adding, “European countries, which have a history of colonialism, starting two world wars, giving chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein [to use against Iran] and defending the crimes of Israel, the greatest violator of human rights, now brazenly demand that Iran respect human rights. Our criticisms of European countries far exceed their criticisms of us. Until further notice, Iran will not allow the German ambassador to return to Tehran. There is no problem with other ambassadors returning to Iran, but the government should not send back our ambassadors in its haste.”

On one hand, Khamenei was holding the Western governments responsible for the assassinations. On the other, he was demanding a fair trial for the true culprits.

Fierce Defense of Vigilante Groups While Rejecting “Extremism”

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency is considered a national catastrophe for which Iranians will pay heavily for years to come. Thus, towards the end of his presidency, the opposition and critics intensified their attacks on his radicalism and extreme policies, as well as those of his aides, including former chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. Meanwhile, Khamenei’s support of Ahmadinejad was unparalleled and unprecedented when compared to his relations with Presidents Rafsanjani, Khatami and later Rouhani. The extremists who supported Ahmadinejad saw no limits to their efforts to eliminate critics and competitors. They attacked Rafsanjani and his family fiercely, and succeeded in removing him from the chairmanship of the Assembly of Experts, the constitutional body that appoints the supreme leader.

In 2011, Saeed Tajik, head of the Basij militia at Tehran’s oil refinery, physically attacked Faezeh Hashemi, a daughter of the former president. Other members of vigilante groups called her “whore” and “prostitute,” and attacked and insulted verbally her father, Rafsanjani, using the crudest possible words. Later on Tajik gave an extensive interview, in which he defended what he had done and attacked his detractors. He spoke in a way that it was clear that he feared no punishment, and threatened that if he were punished, his comrades throughout Iran would take action. Later, on June 14, 2013, the day of Iran’s presidential elections, Tajik appeared alongside Jalili in photographs that stoked controversy on social media.

In a meeting on March 10, 2011, with the Assembly of Experts, who had just removed Rafsanjani as their chairman, Khamenei reacted to the attacks on Faezeh Hashemi and said that condemning false religious and political ideas is a commendable act for young people, but that it should be done without physical or verbal attacks.

He then added, “Some of our young people are undoubtedly pious, pure and good, but think that this [attacking] is their [religious] duty. No, I say this is against the duty, the opposite of the duty. Thus, I would like to ask our youth not to permit this environment of accusation, vilification, and insult, to continue.” Without naming him, Khamenei then criticized Rafsanjani, saying that he is influenced by lies, takes the wrong positions and questions everything.

Though the critics seemed to be criticizing the repressive attacks of the vigilante groups as extremism and radicalism, they were in fact criticizing Khamenei indirectly as well. In response, Khamenei has repeatedly addressed his critics.

On March 21, 2012, several months after the attacks on the British embassy, Khamenei said, “I do not want my words to become an excuse for some to accuse our revolutionary youth of extremism and make them target of their reproach. No, I consider all of our zealous youth as pious and revolutionary and my own children and back them. I support them.”

In the same August 2012 speech in which Khamenei condemned the attacks on the British embassy, he said, “We should not violently and harshly confront our revolutionary youth who espouse wrong ideas due to their emotions. Our college students must be present everywhere, intellectually and physically, and [be able to] declare their positions. We should have students’ gatherings regarding various issues, including protesting the repression [of the Shiites] in Bahrain. But I am also opposed to extremism.”

As though Khamenei’s words had strengthened the extremists’ resolve, they disrupted a speech in Qom by Ali Larijani, speaker of the Majles, on February 11, 2013, and attacked him with shoes. The Majles prepared a detailed report on the attacks. Khamenei condemned them, and disruption of a speech by Hassan Khomeini, a grandson of the ayatollah, on June 4, 2009, but admitted explicitly that such attacks are carried out by the Islamic vigilante groups. He said on February 17, 2013:

"I am opposed to what happened in Qom. I am opposed to what happened at the Imam’s mausoleum [where Hassan Khomeini’s speech was disrupted]. I have ordered the officials so many times to prevent such things. Those who commit such acts, if they really consider themselves as belonging to Hezbollah, they should not [do such things]. We consider these acts as not being in the interest of our country. They [the vigilante groups] go here and there, and chant emotional slogans against this or that; such slogans do not solve anything. Keep this anger, the emotions, for other [more important] issues. If during the “holy defense” [the war with Iraq during the 1980s] the Basij had attacked people on its whim, it would have destroyed the country. Order is necessary, as is discipline. Those who do not care about [my] words are in a different category. But those who do care and do not want to commit anything against religion, they should stop such acts."

In other words, Khamenei verbally opposes the vigilante groups’ law-breaking activities and gives them moral correctives, but supports them in practice.

Likewise, on June 4, 2013, Khamenei said, “Whenever easygoing people do not want to be in the field of struggle, they accuse the fighting pious of extremism and radicalism.”

The Rouhani Era

In 2013, Rouhani ran a successful presidential campaign on a platform that opposed extremism and espoused moderation, both domestically and abroad. He intensified his attacks on extremism after he was elected, and dismissed the radicals from the executive branch. In response, Khamenei has intensified and clarified his defense of the radicals.

On March 6, 2014, Khamenei said, “The nation should value the pious revolutionary youth that, whenever there was a threat, defended the country. No one can dismiss and isolate them and make people skeptical about them. Of course, no one can isolate them, anyway.”

On July 7, 2014, Khamenei said, “The Rouhani administration’s slogan is moderation, but under the guise of moderation and ‘avoiding extremism’ it is dismissing the pious forces.”

On September 9, 2014, Khamenei said, “They [the moderates and reformists] attack the revolutionary Hezbollah forces in the name of [confronting] extremism, whereas we should value them because they help the country in the times of threats.”

The Rouhani administration fired many university chancellors who had been appointed by Ahmadinejad, and has partly opened up the political atmosphere in the universities. Khamenei is very unhappy about this. On October 14, 2015, he said, “The government’s ministers should pay attention to [my] warning that they should not confront the pious revolutionary forces in universities.” A month later, he spoke to the minister of science, research and technology (who is in charge of the university system), the university chancellors and heads of research institutes, saying, “One of your duties is to allow the pious revolutionary forces dominate the [political] space in universities.”

In a meeting with the Basij commander on September 26, 2015, Khamenei said, “To infiltrate [the system], the enemy [the U.S.] through its agents constantly proscribes the pious revolutionary forces and the Basij. Anyone who accuses such forces of extremism and radicalism is helping the U.S. to complete its project [of infiltration]. Thus, they must stop making accusations of extremism.”