Iran's “Supreme Leader” Khamenei on Friday led Islamic prayers in memory of slain Hezbollah terrorist Hassan Nasrallah and declared his country's failed missile attack on Israel “amazing”. It sought to lift spirits amid Israel's relentless counterterrorism campaign by predicting a surge in jihadi recruitment. .
Khamenei guided Opposition news agency Iran International reported that Friday prayers were held for the first time in five years, and the novelty of the prayers drew large crowds to Tehran. The 85-year-old “Supreme Leader” gave a speech in both Farsi and Arabic, appealing for the entire Muslim world to unite against the “tyrannical and predatory demons” of the United States and Israel.
He spent much of his speech praising Nasrallah, the mass murderer responsible for the deaths of at least thousands of people, including many Americans, and accusing the Iranian people of Hezbollah, Hamas and other Iranian-funded groups. encouraged them to support terrorist proxies in the region.
Nasrallah ran Hezbollah is a Shiite jihadist terrorist organization from 1992 to 2024. Hezbollah has spent decades working to kill Jews around the world, from supporting terrorist activities against Israel in the region to playing a key role in the Western Hemisphere's deadliest terrorist attack before September. . 2001, 1994 bombing 85 people were killed in the attack by the Argentine-Israel Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Nasrallah was eliminated on September 27 in an Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah's headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon.
Khamenei on Friday called Nasrallah “my brother, my beloved… Lebanon's shining jewel.” But he discouraged grief, declaring Nasrallah's “martyrdom” a “reinvigorating, enlightening and inspiring” moment that “brings hope”, according to one report. translation Contents of a sermon by Iran's Tasnim News Agency.
“It is our duty and the responsibility of all Muslims to repay the debt of wounded and bloody Lebanon,” Khamenei declared. “Hezbollah and the martyred Saeed took steps to defend the defense of Gaza and the jihad of Al-Aqsa Mosque, dealing a blow to the cruel regime that usurped them. They provided vital services to the entire region and the entire Islamic world. We have provided it.”
Ayatollah Khamenei said attempts to eradicate the scourge of Islamic extremist terrorism from the Middle East have led to Israel stealing the region's energy resources to “export to the Western world” while facilitating imports of goods and technology from Western countries. He claimed it was a US conspiracy. To the region. ”
“The main problem facing the region is foreign interference. Governments in the region can establish peace and security. To achieve this great and liberating goal, nations and governments must “It takes effort and struggle,” he declared.
Iranian leaders say Israel's increasingly effective campaign to eliminate terrorists in Gaza and Lebanon will further incite Islamic violence, following atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023 , concluded that it was actually backfiring.
“The result of this action is increased anger and motivation among people,” he claimed. “It promotes the emergence of more fighters, commanders, leaders, and an increase in the number of people willing to sacrifice their lives. It is a noose around the neck of a bloodthirsty wolf. This will ultimately lead to the elimination of this shameful presence from the field.”
The Tasnim translation of Khamenei's statement omitted parts of the sermon. reported In a report by Iran International, Khamenei defended large-scale missile attacks on Israeli civilian population centers this week. The attack caused many Israeli civilians to take shelter in air raid shelters, but there were no casualties, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported light damage to some military facilities.
Despite the attack's apparent failure, Khamenei praised the “excellent work of our troops just a few nights ago” and declared that the attack was “completely within their rights.”
“Every citizen has the right to defend his land, home, country and interests from invaders,” Hamanei said, and the declaration appears to exclude Israelis.
Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian, who took office in July after campaigning as a “moderate” in Iran's rigged presidential election, enthusiastically celebrated Khamenei's bellicose rant on Friday. declare Serving Nasrallah is a “demonstration of Iran's strength and unity.”
“By God's will, with the Supreme Leader's presence at Friday prayers, we will show the world a show of strength, unity and unity,” Pezeshkian told reporters, according to Tasnim news agency. he said.
Pezeshkian was one of the first to issue a statement condemning Nasrallah's removal, declaring that Iran would soon seek retaliation and hinting at a “decisive” attack by Iran.
“President Pezeshkian, speaking at a cabinet meeting on Sunday, once again strongly condemned Israel's assassination of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah,” Iranian propaganda broadcaster Press TV reported on Monday. It was a bunker buster bomb supplied by the United States. ”
Pezeshkian said the hundreds of missiles his country fired into Israel this week, despite causing no casualties, “showed that the Israeli regime's Iron Dome system is more fragile than glass. He said he was “very proud.”
