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SvennoJ 18 hours ago
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Iran supreme leader speaking now after Friday prayers

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed a mass gathering days after Iran’s attack on Israel.

He delivered a rare sermon on Friday – his first since his country’s missile attack on Israel and also the first since Israel launched its wave of attacks on Hezbollah strongholds.

Thousands of Iranians were gathered in the capital, Tehran, to catch a glimpse of the leader, with a photograph of Khamenei placed side by side with a picture of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on the main stage.

Some held the green and yellow flag of Hezbollah, while others held the Palestinian flag.

“The policies adopted by our enemy is to sow the seeds of division and sedition, to drive a wedge among all the Muslims. They are the same enemies to the Palestinians, Lebanese, Egyptians, and the Iraqis. They are the enemy to the Yemeni and Syrian people,” Iran’s supreme leader told the large crowd.

“Our enemy is one.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says every country has the right to defend itself from aggressors. Muslim nations have to prepare their “defence against the common enemy”.

Khamenei also said Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel and Iran’s recent ballistic missile strike were “legal and legitimate”. “Each and every country, each and every people have the ultimate right to defend themselves against the ultimate tyranny,” Khamenei told the cheering crowd.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says his country won’t “procrastinate or rush to carry out its duty” in confronting Israel. He also spoke on behalf of Palestine.

“The Palestinian people have a lawful right to defend themselves. To stand up to those criminals – the occupation forces. There is not a single court or international organisation that can blame the Palestinian people for simply defending their homeland,” said Khamenei during his Friday sermon.


Ayatollah Khamenei ‘focused on unity’ in rare speech

Iran’s supreme leader sees the possibility of a regional war is real. That’s why he is calling on Muslims to be united.

There has been criticism in the past decade – particularly when it comes to Iranian policies throughout the region – that Iran is being isolationist. Now it seems Khamenei is attempting to fix that.

It’s a call for action for the whole region. In the second part of his speech, he spoke in Arabic, not in Persian. That he decided to publicly lead the Friday prayers is also a message to the Israelis that Iranian leaders are not forced into hiding.

It's clear Iran is only getting emboldened by the current actions of Israel. Exactly what Netanyahu wants, a regional war to reshape the power balance in the ME.


‘Any strike at Israel is a service to entire region and world’

Iran’s supreme leader delivered the second part of his speech in Arabic, directly addressing the Arab people of the region.

Khamenei said interference by foreign powers supporting Israel is the most pressing issue in the region. But he said resistance against Israeli aggression has “set the Zionist regime back 70 years” as it is now fighting to survive as it did at the time of its founding.

He called on the people of Lebanon not to despair and to continue standing up to Israel.

Khamenei pointed out that dozens of top Iranian figures including a president were assassinated in the span of several months in 1981, but that only strengthened the establishment.

The same will be true for Lebanon, which lost leaders like Hezbollah founder Abbas al-Musawi and cleric and politician Musa al-Sadr but became stronger, he promised.

“Any strikes at the Zionist regime from any person and any organisation is a service to the whole region and perhaps the whole of humanity,” the Iranian leader said.

Hezbollah bureau chief Abdullah Safieddine, the brother of Hashem Safieddine, could be seen seated next to the top officials before the speech began.