IRAN’S new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei made his first public statement since succeeding his father yesterday, vowing that Iran would avenge the blood of its dead and calling on neighbouring countries to expel American forces from the region or face continued Iranian strikes on their bases.
Speaking through a presenter on state television, Khamenei said Iran should not hesitate to use the ‘lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz’ and singled out the Minab massacre, where a US strike near a school killed 168 people including around 110 children, as demanding particular retribution.
While describing Iran’s posture toward neighbouring states as one of ‘friendship’, he was unambiguous that American bases on their soil would remain targets.
Mojtaba Khamenei was named supreme leader on 8th March, ten days after his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on the opening day of the US-Israeli war on 28th February.
His mother and wife were also killed in the strikes.
Iranian state TV described him as a ‘veteran of the Ramadan war’, and one Iranian official said he was lightly injured.
He had not appeared on state television since his appointment, and Thursday’s statement was read aloud by a presenter rather than delivered in person.
The statement came as the IRGC launched the 41st wave of Operation True Promise 4, firing Khorramshahr, Qadr, Kheybar Shekan and hypersonic Fattah missiles alongside loitering drones at American positions in Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Iraq, as well as Israeli targets in Tel Aviv.
Iran’s army earlier struck Palmachim and Ovda airbases and the Shin Bet headquarters near Tel Aviv, with army spokesman Brigadier General Akraminia saying operations were growing ‘more precise day by day’.
European opposition to the war continued to harden, with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni joining France, the Netherlands and Spain in condemning the campaign as outside international law.