The highest-ranking and most popular Sunni cleric in Iran, Mawlawi Abdul-Hamid, expressed concern for the overall situation of minorities in Iran under the Islamic Republic, saying the same ethnicities in neighboring countries and the Persian Gulf region "are better off."

"When comparing their lives to people in Kuwait and other Persian Gulf nations, our fellow Arab countrymen clearly find themselves in livelihood hardships," the cleric told Sunni Online, a news outlet that monitors the situation of Iran's Sunni community. "They have no welfare and no authority to decide their future as they also suffer from pressure and discrimination," the cleric said in reference to the ethnic Arabs in Khuzestan.

For over two weeks, the largely Arab-populated region in Iran's southwest has been rocked with protests originating from a water crisis, which has only exacerbated its already alarming unemployment and poverty.

Abdul-Hamid, however, noted that the anger in Khuzestan is not limited to water shortages, and rather encompasses "destitution and underdevelopment," which he blamed on government "mismanagement," the outcome of which "is obviously anger and discontent."