TEHRAN - Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi has said that Iran hopes Washington will let the American people breathe.

“We have been witnessing cruelty and discrimination against a part of American society since the time of slavery. They are shouting against oppression and the world is hearing it,” ISNA quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

Protests have started across the U.S. over brutal killing of an African-American man.

George Floyd died on May 25 after being pinned down by a white officer despite yelling: “I cannot breathe” under the knee of a white U.S. police officer.

Mousavi had earlier said that brutal killing of the African-American man was a harrowing demonstration of “systematic racism” exercised by the current rulers of the White House.

“Brutal killing of #GeorgeFloyd by Minneapolis’ white man in uniform in cold blood is a harrowing demonstration of systematic racism and white supremacism glorified by the current administration,” he tweeted on May 28.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on June 3 a police officer put his knee on a black man’s neck and pushed until he died, noting it shows the nature of the United States’ governments.

He said such crimes have frequently happened in the past, and the U.S. has done the same things in many countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and other countries.

Pointing to the slogan of “I cannot breathe,” which the U.S. people have been chanting in recent days, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “This is what the nations that have been the victims of United States’ oppressive usurpation want to say from the bottom of their hearts.”

NA/PA