Khamenei.ir, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said that Tuesday’s Iranian attack on rival, Israel was the “least punishment”, stressing that the Islamic Republic will attack Israel again if necessary.
Iran launched about 200 ballistic missiles toward Israel on Tuesday in what it said was a response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and others.
“The brilliant action of our armed forces a couple of nights ago was completely legal and legitimate,” Khamenei said in a Friday speech in Tehran.
Performing Islamic Friday prayer traditions, he delivered his speech with what appeared to be the barrel of a rifle next to him.
The last time Khamenei led Friday prayers was nearly five years ago to commemorate the death of Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who was killed by the US in an airstrike at Baghdad International Airport.
On Tuesday, Khamenei ordered a missile attack on Israel, partly in response to Nasrallah’s killing in an Israeli airstrike last Friday.
Khamenei dedicated a large part of his speech to Hezbollah and Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated by Israel in Beirut last Friday.
He also praised Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and described it as “legitimate.”
The second part of his sermon was delivered in Arabic, to appeal to Lebanese and Palestinian audiences, he said.
“Israel will never defeat Hamas and Hezbollah,” Khamenei said.
“The people of Palestine have the right — in the face of the enemy who has taken over their land, their home, their farms and impacted their life — to stand up for themselves,” he said.
Almost a year after Hamas’ deadly attack on October 7, Israel is pushing forward on multiple fronts: launching a ground incursion against Hezbollah in Lebanon, carrying out airstrikes in Gaza and Beirut and threatening retaliation for Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this week.
