Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, slammed Israel in a speech marking the end of Ramadan. He accused Israel of being behind an airstrike in Damascus on April 1, which killed Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Mohammad Zahedi and others in Damascus.
The airstrike hit a building that is part of an Iranian consulate compound, which is used by the IRGC. Iran has vowed revenge in the wake of the attack.
Tasnim News reported the comments of the Ayatollah. “Referring to the Zionist regime’s air attack on the Iranian consulate, Ayatollah Khamenei clarified in his lecture: The evil regime itself, which is full of errors and evil, added one more error to its errors, and that was the attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria,” Tasnim noted.
Iran views the consulate as part of its own soil and thus views the attack as an attack on Iran itself. “The leader of the revolution emphasized that the evil regime made a mistake in this matter and will be punished. Of course, we mourned our martyrs,” the leader said.
The Iranians called on people to take this opportunity to observe the end of the holy month of Ramadan. His speech began with this message of religious devotion, calling on people to be thankful to God and take “our advice is to keep this spiritual reserve for yourself … Especially our dear young people who, thank God, have a desire to remember, pray and be religious.”
Gaza remarks
He also noted that Iran’s regime does not seek to “force people to become religious,” but he noted reports that some people had “pretended to fast” during the month.
The Ayatollah also focused on Gaza during his speech, accusing Israel of killing “defenseless people.” Iran has sought to exploit the war in Gaza since Hamas launched its attack and massacre on Israel on October 7. Iran’s leader slammed Western governments for supporting Israel. He claimed that most Western governments had only paid lip service to supporting people in Gaza and had not acted to stop the war.
He slammed the “arrogant and cruel governments of America and England.” Iran has encouraged militias in Iraq and Syria to attack US forces since October 7. One attack by Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah killed three Americans in Jordan in January. Iran has also supported the Houthis in Yemen attacking commercial ships.
In the last part of his speech, the Iranian leader also spoke of recent incidents in Iran near the border with Pakistan. He spoke about the need to protect the borders of the country. This refers to recent attacks on Iranian security forces by Balochi rebels.
The Baloch people are suppressed by Iran, and they have carried out attacks on Iranian forces and also on Pakistan forces in recent months. Iran carried out missile attacks on Pakistan in January, targeting a Baloch rebel group called Jaish ul-Adl.
Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Israel Katz responded on the social media platform X to Khamenei’s threat, saying, “If Iran will attack from its territories – Israel will react and attack in Iran” in two languages: Hebrew and Persian.
اگر ایران از خاک خود حمله کند، اسرائیل واکنش نشان داده و در ایران حمله خواهد کرد @khamenei_ir
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) April 10, 2024
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