Tehran – Iran’s newly elected Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Sayyed Mojtaba Khamenei, said on Friday that the ongoing war with Israel and the United States “goes far beyond missiles, drones, torpedoes, and the battlefield.” He added that the enemies of the Islamic Republic were being dealt “a dizzying blow”, having miscalculated in believing the country would collapse after just three or four days of airstrikes.
Khamenei’s statement, his first major policy message to Iran and the world since assuming the leadership of the country, was released on his Telegram channel, which was also read out on Iranian state television on the occasion of the Persian New Year, Nowruz.
“By showing unity and resolve, Iranians … despite all the differences in religious, intellectual, cultural and political origins … had ‘dealt him (the enemy) a dizzying blow, and they began to utter numerous contradictory words and many absurdities, which is a sign of lack of mindfulness and the existence of cognitive weakness’,” he said.
He charged that Israel and the United States had the “illusion” that if Sayyed Khamenei and other military leaders were killed, they would create “fear and despair” and “realise the dream of dominating Iran and then dividing it”.
The war was launched under “the delusion that if the pinnacle of the regime and certain influential military figures were to attain martyrdom, it would instil fear and despair in our dear people … and through this means, the dream of dominating Iran and subsequently dismembering it would be realised”, he said.
Instead, “a fracture has emerged in the enemy,” he added.
The three-week-old US and Israeli war on Iran has killed more than 3,000 and wounded more than 16,000, including hundreds of women and children, and destroyed oil depots, schools, hospitals, and thousands of residential and commercial units in the country.
Iran’s retaliatory attacks on US military bases and other economic targets in the Arab Gulf countries, which have insisted that they did not allow the US to use their territories in the attacks on Iran, have drawn widespread condemnation regionally and globally.
Hundreds of Iranian drone and missile attacks on Israel and Gulf states have killed nearly 30 people, including foreign nationals, and caused serious damage to major energy hubs in the GCC countries.
Meanwhile, Tehran has launched hundreds of drone and ballistic missile attacks on Israel, sending millions of Israelis into bunkers for hours at a time in the past three weeks.
In the message, Mojtaba Khamenei also said Iran and its allied forces in the region were “in no way” behind attacks on Oman and Turkey during the war, instead blaming “deception by the Zionist enemy” in reference to Israel.
He accused Israel of “using false-flag tactics to create division between the Islamic Republic and its neighbours” and warned, “Such actions may also occur in other countries.”
Mojtaba Khamenei, 58, who was injured but survived the US-Israeli airstrike that killed his family, including his 86 year old fathe on the first day of the war on 28 February, was selected by the country’s leadership a week later to become the supreme leader.
He has not made any public appearances since but issued condolences to the public via the president’s office for several top Iranian officials assassinated by Israel during the past week.
The Third War
“In the past year, our dear people have endured three military and security wars,” Khamenei said.
“The first war was the June war, when the Zionist enemy, with the special help of the United States and in the midst of negotiations, killed some of the country’s best commanders and prominent scientists and subsequently about 1,000 of our fellow citizens,” Mojtaba Khamenei added.
“Because of a gross miscalculation, the enemy thought that after a day or two, it would be the people who would overthrow the Islamic system,” he noted.
However, he added, the “vigilance of the Iranian nation” and “bravery” of its fighters foiled the Zionist plots.”
He said the current US-Israeli war was launched after “the enemy failed to rally a significant popular movement in its favour”, in reference to the January unrest against the government which was put down by the security forces.
“The enemy”, Khamenei said, “operated under the illusion that if it martyred the head of the establishment and a number of influential military figures, it would create fear and despair in you, our dear people, and cause you to leave the arena.”
Ayatollah Khamenei highlighted the nation’s recent triumphs over internal and external threats, emphasising that the strength of the Iranian people far exceeds the military calculations of their adversaries.
He emphasised that “Iran’s front line is much bigger than his [the enemies’] humble and small mentality.”
He also bid farewell to the casualties of the US-Israeli terrorist aggression, specifically mentioning the 175 children of the Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab and the 84 navy officers and sailors killed in the American strike on the Dena Destroyer off the coast of Sri Lanka.
Khamenei also promised a “serious and genuine” policy of engagement with neighbouring nations.
He said several “spiritual elements” strengthen these ties, including a shared devotion to Islam, sacred sites, shared ethnicity, and “common strategic interests, particularly in confronting the front of arrogance”.
