where supporters carried portraits of slain Hezbollah and Hamas leaders.
He hailed the groups’ “fierce defence” against Israeli forces over the past year, since Hamas’s October 7 attack sparked the war in the Gaza Strip that has since spread to Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East.
The Tehran-backed militants were engaged in “logical and legitimate” action against Israel, Khamenei said, and “no one has the right to criticise them.”
Khamenei spoke with a rifle by his side, a common tradition in Iran for Shiite Muslim imams leading Friday prayers, meant to signal preparedness to face an enemy.
The speech was preceded by a commemoration ceremony Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah who was killed in an Israeli strike on southern Beirut on September 27 alongside Revolutionary Guards commander Abbas Nilforoushan, dramatically escalating the conflict.
where admirers held up pictures of the dead Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
subsequently Hamas’s attack on October 7 triggered the Gaza Strip conflict that has subsequently expanded to Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East, he praised the factions’ “fierce defence” against Israeli soldiers over the course of the previous year.
The Tehran-backed terrorists were engaging in “logical and legitimate” action against Israel, Khamenei declared, and “no one has the right to criticise them.”
As is customary for Shiite Muslim imams conducting Friday prayers in Iran, Khamenei spoke while holding a gun at his side, a message that he was ready to meet an adversary.
Prior to the address, there was a memorial service for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was murdered on September 27 in an Israeli assault in southern Beirut.
subsequently Hamas’s attack on October 7 triggered the Gaza Strip conflict that has subsequently expanded to Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East, he praised the factions’ “fierce defence” against Israeli soldiers over the course of the previous year.
According to Khamenei, the militants supported by Tehran were acting in a “logical and legitimate” manner against Israel, and “no one has the right to criticize them.”
As is customary for Shiite Muslim imams conducting Friday prayers in Iran, Khamenei spoke while holding a gun at his side, a message that he was ready to meet an adversary.
The address was preceded by a memorial service for Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, who was murdered on September 27 along with Revolutionary Guards commander Abbas Nilforoushan in an Israeli assault on southern Beirut, sharply intensifying the battle.
Khamenei’s talk took place days before the first anniversary of the Gaza war, and after Iran last week had fired barrages of approximately 200 missiles at Israel in retribution for the killings of Nasrallah, Nilforoushan as well as Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
The missile strike was Iran’s second-ever direct attack against US-backed Israel. “What our armed forces did was the minimum punishment for the crimes of the usurping Zionist regime,” Khamenei declared.
Israel, according to the Iranian leader, is a “malicious regime” that has “only kept itself standing by the injection of American support”.
He declared that it “will not last long.”
Khamenei declared that “the Palestinians were right” to attack Israel on October 7, describing it as “a logical and legal” move.
Iran has praised the Hamas assault while denying any role.
Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Tehran has made support for the Palestinian cause a focal point of its foreign policy and does not recognize Israel.
The least that could have been done was what our armed forces did.
The last time Khamenei presided over Friday prayers was in January 2020, following an attack on a US army facility in Iraq by Iran that resulted in the death of Qasem Soleimani, the leader of the Revolutionary Guards.
The “axis of resistance” against Israel and its ally, the United States, is composed of military organizations in the Middle East such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and others that are associated with Iran.
Tehran responded to a deadly Israeli raid on Iran’s consulate in Damascus in April by firing missiles and drones into Israel.
Israeli officials claim that in both strikes, almost every missile was intercepted by Israel or its allies.
