Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, assured Friday, rifle at his side, that Tehran’s allies, notably Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah, will not “back down” in the face of Israel, which will not has “not for long”.
The head of state spoke in Tehran in front of thousands of people, three days before the first anniversary of the unprecedented attack by the Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli soil, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip, on October 7, 2023.
His speech comes a few days after Iranian missile attacks against Israel and the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli raid in Beirut on September 27.
Ayatollah Khanenei, who spoke in Arabic during this rare sermon, considered the attacks on Tuesday against Israel, carried out with 200 missiles, and on October 7 “legitimate”.
For him, Tuesday’s is “the least” of the responses against Israel.
The Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, indicated that this operation was a retaliation measure for the assassinations of Nasrallah and one of their commanders, Abbas Nilforoushan, on September 27.
It also aimed to avenge the death of Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh on July 31 in Tehran in an attack blamed on Israel by Iran and the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Hamas’ offensive against Israel a year ago was “logical and legitimate and the Palestinians were right,” Ali Khamenei said.
He further estimated that the combat of Hezbollah, which has been firing on northern Israel since October 2023 in support of Hamas, provided a “vital service to the entire region”, and that Israel could “not seriously harm” this Shiite movement, many leaders of which have been killed in recent days in raids by Israeli forces.
“Hezbollah, defending Gaza […] and by striking the usurping and tyrannical regime [Israël, NDLR]has […] rendered a vital service to the entire region and to the entire Islamic world,” he said.
Hamas and Hezbollah are part of the “axis of resistance” against Israel, a group so named by Iran which brings together allied movements also including the Yemeni Houthi rebels and even Iraqi groups.
“The resistance in the region will not retreat despite its martyrs and will achieve victory,” insisted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ultimate decision-maker in the main issues of the Islamic Republic.
This week’s Iranian attack was Iran’s second against Israel, following missile and drone attacks in April in retaliation for a deadly airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that was blamed on Israel.
In both cases, the Israeli army said it intercepted most of the shots, helped by its allies, first and foremost the United States.
Israel vowed to respond to Tuesday’s Iranian attack.
The last time Mr. Khamenei led Friday prayers was in January 2020, after an Iranian missile attack on two bases housing Americans in Iraq, in response to the American drone attack which had just killed the general in Baghdad Iranian Qassem Soleimani, a commander of the Guards.