A photograph shows billboards depicting Iran’s slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son, Iran's new supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, displayed at the entrance to the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre. AFP
“We believe in friendship with neighbouring countries,” Khamenei said in a statement read on state television.
“However, we are compelled to continue targeting American bases in those countries.”
He insisted that Iranian forces are focusing only on US military assets in the region.
Khamenei added that Iran “will not hesitate to avenge the crimes committed by the enemy,” specifically referring to the “Minab school crime,” where the Us-Israeli strikes killed at least 165 children.
He urged regional governments to shut down US bases on their territory and called on the Iranian public to remain mobilized across all sectors to thwart the “hostile plots against the country.”
The new leader also noted that his country's forces must keep the strategic Strait of Hormuz closed.
“The leverage of closing the Strait of Hormuz must definitely be used,” he said.
He added that Iran must also act across what he described as the “enemy’s vulnerable arenas,” saying that recent Iranian strikes had already blocked the adversary’s advances and shattered any illusion that Iran could be controlled or fragmented.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s remarks suggested Iran may open up new fronts in the war if it continues, in areas where “Iran’s adversaries have little experience.”
“One point I must emphasize is that, in any case, we will obtain compensation from the enemy,” Khamenei said. “If it refuses, we will take from its assets to the extent we deem appropriate, and if that is not possible, we will destroy its assets to the same extent.”
Khamenei thanked fighters from the “resistance front” in Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq, describing their countries as Iran’s “best friends.” He specifically commended Hezbollah for supporting the Islamic Republic despite obstacles and said armed groups in Iraq had courageously chosen to back Tehran.
“Iran shares borders with 15 countries, and we have always sought, and continue to seek, constructive relations with them,” Khamenei said. Nevertheless, he called on regional governments to clarify their position towards the “aggressors responsible for the deaths of Iranian citizens.”
He said Iran remains fully prepared to maintain friendly and constructive relations with all neighbouring states.
When Ali Khamenei took over from the late Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, he did not immediately make a public speech in person, instead waiting until after a 40-day mourning period.
However, Mojtaba Khamenei finds himself and the Iranian government he leads in perhaps its most-desperate fight since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Khamenei also describes the deaths of his family members Khamenei acknowledged in his speech the assassination of his father, signaling he was there in the aftermath and saw his father’s body.
He confirmed his wife, one of his sisters, his niece and the husband of his other sister also were killed in the airstrike.
“I had the honor of seeing his body after his martyrdom,” Khamenei said of his father. “What I saw was a mountain of steadfastness, and I was told that the fist of his intact hand had been clenched.”
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