TEHRAN: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared in public on Friday for the first time since Iran’s missile attack on Israel, describing it as legitimate punishment for what he called Israeli crimes and calling for more anti-Israel struggle.
Delivering his first Friday prayers sermon in nearly five years, Khamenei said Israel’s adversaries in the region should “double your efforts and capabilities… and resist the aggressive enemy”.
The deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said meanwhile that Iran would strike Israeli energy and gas installations if Israel attacked it.
Speaking alternately in Arabic and Persian, Khamenei eulogised Nasrallah, Iran’s top paramilitary ally in the region, and said the focus of the US and its allies was to preserve the security of Israel as a cover for seizing the region’s resources. “Our resistant people in Lebanon and Palestine, all these testimonies and spilled blood will not shake your will, but rather strengthen your steadfastness”, Khamenei said.
“Israel pretends to win through assassinations, destruction, bombing and killing of civilians. This behaviour increased the resistance’s motivation”, Khamenei added. “This reality shows us that every strike launched by any group against Israel is a service to the region and to all humanity.”