Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei says Strait of Hormuz must remain closed in first message: state television

Iran’s state media on Thursday issued the first public statement attributed to the Islamic Republic’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mokhtaba Khamenei, since his appointment following his father and predecessor The assassination of Ali Khamenei on February 28, in the initial attacks by the United States and Israel against Iran.

His statement was read by an Iranian state television presenter and accompanied by a photo of Khamenei, but no audio or video of the new leader. The format in which the Iranian regime issued its statement did little to quell rumors that he may actually have been incapacitated, possibly even left in a coma, in the same attack that killed his father and mother.

An Iranian official said Wednesday that the new supreme leader was wounded in the attack but “alive and well,” although he has not been seen since the war began.

In the statement read by the presenter on Thursday, attributed to Khamanei, he claims that he learned of his appointment on state television, like everyone else in Iran, and that it would be difficult to follow in his father’s footsteps.

“I had the opportunity to visit [the former Supreme Leader’s] body after his martyrdom. “What I saw was a mountain of strength and I heard that his good hand was clenched into a fist,” he said.

The statement went on to say that during the time before Khamenei was named the new supreme leader, in the days after his father’s assassination, “it was you, the people, who led the country and guaranteed its authority.”

He expressed his “sincere gratitude to our brave warriors” and added that “the lever of the Strait of Hormuz blockade must definitely continue to be used” as a tool in the ongoing war with the United States and Israel.

“Studies have been carried out on the opening of other fronts in which the enemy has little experience and will be extremely vulnerable, and their activation will be carried out if the war situation continues and based on the observance of interests,” he said.

He also thanked “the warriors of the Resistance Front”, describing them as the “best friends” of the Islamic Republic, apparently referring to The Iranian network of proxy armed groups throughout the Middle East.

“The brave and faithful Yemen did not stop defending the oppressed people of Gaza, and the devout Hezbollah has come to the aid of the Islamic Republic despite all obstacles, and the Iraqi resistance has also bravely adopted the same line,” the statement said.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have so far not intervened on Tehran’s behalf since the United States and Israel launched their attack. Hezbollah has launched weapons against Israel and possibly other targets and has been the focus of a widespread and still expanding Israeli military attack in Lebanon this week.

To the Iranians who lost their loved ones, or who were injured or their businesses damaged in the US-Israeli attacks, Khamenei expressed his sympathy and noted that he had also lost, in addition to his father, his wife, his sister and other relatives.

The message also urges Iranians who have lost loved ones to have patience and faith in God’s promise, adding that Iran “will not refrain from avenging the blood of its martyrs. The revenge we seek is not only related to the martyrdom of the Supreme Leader of the Revolution; rather, each member of the nation who is martyred by the enemy is an independent subject for the case of revenge.”

“We will receive compensation from the enemy, and if he refuses, we will take as much of his property as we determine, and if that is not possible, we will destroy the same amount of his property,” he declared.

The statement went on to say that Iran had always been and still was “willing to have warm and constructive relations with all” its regional neighbors, but said that “the enemy has been gradually establishing military and financial bases in some of these countries for years to ensure its dominance over the region,” apparently justifying Iran’s missile and drone attacks on its Gulf neighbors over the past 13 days.

Addressing why Iran was attacking other Gulf nations, the statement said that “some military bases were used” in the current US-Israeli attack, “and naturally, as we had explicitly warned, we simply attacked those bases without attacking those countries. From now on, we will inevitably continue to do so, although we still believe in the need for friendship between ourselves and our neighbors. These countries must make clear their duty to the invaders of our beloved homeland and the murderers of our people. I recommend that you close those bases as soon as possible. possible; because they must have already realized that the claim that the United States would establish security and peace was nothing more than a lie.