Khamenei regime will not be able to keep control of Iran, says dissenting film-maker

Jafar Panahi said the internet blackout had been a sign that there would be ‘a very big massacre’ in Iran. Photograph: John Angelillo/UPI/Shutterstock

The Khamenei regime will not be able to maintain control over Iranian society after the violent suppression of the latest wave of protests, one of the country’s leading film-makers has predicted.

“It is impossible for this government to sustain itself in this situation,” the director Jafar Panahi told the Guardian. “They know it too. They know that it will be impossible to rule over people. Perhaps their only goal right now is to bring the country to the verge of complete collapse and try to destroy it.”