Iranian professor makes chilling prediction about American college students after pro-Palestine rioting: 'These are our people'

An Iranian academic claims pro-Palestine protesters that have taken over American universities would support Iran in a war with the US.

Tehran University Professor Foad Izadi who was educated in America, declared 'these are our people' in an interview with Iranian state TV station IRIB Ofogh on April 26.

He said Iran's brutal Islamic dictatorship, which he he claimed to be part of, was cheering on the protests from coast to coast in the US.

Hundreds of cops on Tuesday night cleared protesters out of Columbia University in New York City, and the next night police hit the UCLA encampment. The police presence at protests comes after many grew dangerous with students fighting with each other or taking over university buildings. 

Tehran University Professor Foad Izadi declared 'these are our people' in reference to US protestors in an interview with Iranian state TV station IRIB Ofogh on April 26

Izadi also claimed in the interview, translated and posted online by the Middle East Research Institute, that Iran had Hezbollah-like militant cells hiding in the US.

'Sooner or later, this kind of support for the Zionist regime by the American regime will diminish. It might not stop completely, but its diminishing is important,' he said.

'We are watching the demonstrations and like what we see, but it should not end with this.'

Izadi tried to take credit for Iran keeping 'the Palestinian idea' alive, claiming it would have 'closed years ago' if not for the Iranian regime. 

'The idea of resistance belongs to Iran, but on the operational level, when it comes to recruiting connections and building networks, the [Iranian] state has not been involved in a sufficient level,' he said.

The professor then made his boldest claim - the students and other protesters would support Iran over their own country if there was ever conflict. 

'These are our people,' he said.

'If tensions between America and Iran rise tomorrow or the day after, these are the people who will have to take to the streets to support Iran.'

People link arms while gathered inside the ongoing encampment of pro-Palestinian protestors on the campus of UCLA

Dozens of universities like Columbia (pictured) have tent cities of students and outside agitators squatting on lawns and refusing to leave

NYPD cops dressed in riot gear have stormed through a window of a Columbia University building occupied by dozens of pro-Palestine protesters to begin clearing them out

Izadi claimed Iran it could do more damage to the US with an armed militant group than it did in Lebanon, where Hezbollah has caused chaos for decades.

'Personally, I think that the potential to repeat in the US what Iran did in Lebanon is much higher,' he said. 'Our Hezbollah-style groups in America are much larger than what we have in Lebanon. 

'American is the Great Satan and our main enemy, but we have hope in these areas.'

Izadi got both his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Houston and his doctorate from Louisiana State University before returning to Iran.

While at LSU he did an externship at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy with a 'research project examining the recent US public diplomacy objectives and methods in Iran.'

His project would 'identify institutional processes and players in U.S. public diplomacy initiatives toward Iran and will investigate how these initiatives fit with the concept of new public diplomacy'.

Students and protestors at City College of New York also clashed with police on Tuesday night as the city cracked down on pro-Palestine protestors at college campuses

Protesters light flares and shout from the inside of locked gates to CCNY as hundreds of other demonstrators rally outside

At Houston, he won an award for his paper A Discourse Analysis of American Newspaper Editorials: The Case of Iran's Nuclear Program.

Izadi frequently posts videos from American university protests, expressing support for the demonstrators and blasting police.

'Freedom of the press, American style: the demonstration is in support of the Palestinian people, and the cameraman was arrested along with more than 50 students,' he wrote on April 26.

When the US Congress passed a bill giving billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, he lashed out in an April 20 post.

'The child-killing Prime Minister of the Zionist regime: Financial support for Israel is "defense of Western civilization". It really is the same. The end of western civilization is the same crime that you see in Gaza,' he wrote.