Tehran, Iran (DT) – In a fiery address earlier today, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, described the recent militant attack on Israel as “the least of punishments” the country should expect for its actions in Palestine.
His comments come in the wake of heightened tensions in the region following a large-scale attack on Israeli cities by armed groups linked to Gaza and Hezbollah.
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Khamenei was addressing thousands of worshippers at a collective prayer honoring the slain leader of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah.
“What our military forces did was the least of the punishments for the Israeli regime’s aggression,” the top political and religious authority of Iran said at the Imam Khomeini Mosque in Tehran.
“The action of our armed forces two or three nights ago was a legal act,” Khamenei added, referring to Tuesday night’s attack with 200 missiles against Israel.
“Every blow to the Zionist regime is a service to all humanity.”
The cleric stressed that “every nation has the right to defend its country and territory against an aggressor,” referring to the killings of Nasrallah and an Iranian general in Israeli strikes in Beirut on Saturday, as well as Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
“Hezbollah and its heroic and martyred leader embody Lebanon’s historical virtues and identity,” he said, referring to the Lebanese group that is one of Tehran’s main allies in the region.
Call for Islamic Unity Khamenei also called on the Muslim world to unite against the enemy, “whose policy is divide and conquer.”
“The policy of the Quran is that Muslim nations must be united,” he said, adding that “the enemy of Iran is the enemy of Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, and Yemen.”
He specifically pointed to the United States as a key source of tension in the Middle East. “The United States seeks to control the region’s resources through the Israeli regime.”
Khamenei reiterated his support for Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, deeming it ”a legal and international measure, a legitimate right of the Palestinians.”
He affirmed their right to confront any enemy that has “destroyed their home and their life.”
After his speech, Khamenei led his first Friday congregational prayer since 2020, which he had previously conducted following the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, a former general heading the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), by the US in Iraq.
Tuesday’s bombing marked the second Iranian missile attack on Israel since an initial assault in April, which included missile and drone strikes in response to the deaths of seven soldiers in the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
Following the attack, Israel announced it would retaliate, to which Iran responded that it would respond with even greater force. EFE
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