Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated today that the Iranian missile strike on Israel on Tuesday was entirely legal and justified, describing it as a “minimal punishment for Israel’s shocking crimes”.
In a sermon following prayers at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla mosque, Khamenei asserted that the Islamic Republic would fulfill “all related duties” against Israel “with strength and courage,” emphasizing twice that Iran would not “hesitate” or “postpone” action regarding Israel, according to BBC reports.
He labeled Israel as a “vampiric” regime and the United States as a “mad dog” in the region. In the first part of his address, delivered in Persian, Khamenei indicated that Iran’s enemy is the same as that of the Palestinian state, Lebanon, and other Muslim nations.
Khamenei spoke to a massive gathering just days after the Iranian attack on Israel, marking his first sermon since his country’s missile assault and the subsequent wave of Israeli strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, Reuters reported. The last time Khamenei delivered a Friday prayer was shortly after Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad airport in 2020.
Today’s prayers followed a memorial ceremony for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli attack on Beirut last Friday. Thousands of Iranians gathered in Tehran, with a photograph of Khamenei displayed next to that of the deceased Nasrallah on the main stage. Some attendees waved Hezbollah’s green-yellow flag, while others held the Palestinian flag, according to Tanjug.
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Source: Politika
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