Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Iran and its regional allies will not back down against Israel and called for unity among Muslim nations as he delivered a rare Friday sermon.
Khamenei led prayers at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla mosque in central Tehran in his first public appearance since Iran launched a massive barrage of some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday.
The strike was a reprisal for Israel’s killings of key members of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, as well as Israel’s increasing attacks in Lebanon.
Speaking, Khamenei declared that Iran’s attack on Israel was “legal and legitimate” and that “the resistance in the region will not back down even with the killing of its leaders.” He declared, “The operations were… in retaliation for the horrific crimes committed by this vicious criminal organization.”
He declared, “We will not act impulsively or irrationally. We will follow the decisions handed down by our political and military leadership.” Resul Serdar of Al Jazeera reported from Tehran, stating that the event was taking place during a “delicate and intense time.”
According to Serdar, Khamenei’s speech conveyed to Israel that the Iranian government “is not hiding, they are not seeking shelter, they are not going underground.”
It was the supreme leader’s first such sermon in more than four years, coming just before the first anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which led to a war that has so far killed more than 41,700 Palestinians and recently spilled over into Lebanon.