Ayatollah Ali Khamenei First Public Sermon In 5 Years

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has defended its missile strikes on Israel as “a public service,” saying the Islamic Republic will never give up its “rights to defend itself.” Addressing tens of thousands of supporters at a mosque in Tehran, the Iranian leader backed the Palestinian and Lebanese movements against Israel in his rare Friday sermon.

He also called on Muslim nations to strap a belt of defense from Afghanistan to Yemen and Iran to Gaza and Lebanon. “Our armed forces’ brilliant action on the usurping Zionist regime (Israel) last night was a completely legitimate act that is our right,” he said, speaking alternately in Arabic and Persian. He praised Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Sept 27 and vowed to keep backing the resistance against Israel.

Khamenei warned that “the world is watching the Iranian people’s steadfastness” and emphasized that “the roots of the Zionist entity are fake, and the resistance will uproot them.” He praised the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct 7 last year that killed 1,200 people and triggered a war with Israel and insisted that Hezbollah’s control over Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza will continue.

Keeping a gun by his side, Khamenei told the crowd that Hezbollah’s and Hamas’ victory over Israel would lead to a global awakening. He also warned that the “foolishness and stupidity” of the United States and its allies were the root cause of regional problems.

He criticized the Obama administration’s policy in the Middle East, saying it was an attempt to turn the region into a powder keg and that the US could not be trusted. He called for Iranian-backed forces in the region to become “a new force that will eliminate all forms of terrorism and create an environment for stability, security and peace.”

In his speech, Khamenei dismissed the US withdrawal from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran’s nuclear program and its subsequent sanctions as illegitimate and reiterated that the Supreme Leadership Council will not allow the United States to dictate terms to Iran. Talks aimed at reviving the deal under President Joe Biden are on hold, as is the Iranian parliament’s approval of a bill to impose new sanctions.