Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Ali Khamenei: The West now fears our drones and missiles

The Iranian leader added that if Tehran had not begun developing its nuclear project many years ago, it would have had to do so now.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers an address on Oct. 19, 2022. Source: Channel 1 (Iran) via MEMRI.

The West formerly paid little attention to Tehran’s missile and drone technologies but now concedes that they are very dangerous and complains about Iran giving them to “so-and-so,” Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in a statement broadcasted on Wednesday.

According to the video reported by MEMRI, Khamenei’s remarks broadcasted by Iranian Channel 1 could be a reference to recent accusations that Russia is using Iranian-made “suicide drones” in Ukraine.

Israel has been providing Ukraine with “basic intelligence about Iranian drones” that Russia is deploying in its war against Ukraine, The New York Times reported last week.

Khamenei further stated that the drones represent Iran’s pride.

Later in his speech, he said that global industrial usage of nuclear energy has expanded and that if Iran had not begun developing its nuclear project many years ago, it would have had to do so now and bear the repercussions of being far behind the rest of the world.

Many reservists were called up in the middle of the night for the surprise exercise, part of the military’s post-Oct. 7 testing of readiness.
The U.S. president said he would be willing to accept a 20-year freeze on Tehran’s nuclear program, but only with proper guarantees.
American forces hunted for Abu-Bilal al-Minuki for months over his killing of Christians, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said.
Those who mark “Nakba Day” are ignoring the real cause of the mass Arab migration in 1948, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.
Skirmishes to Israel’s north continue despite the announcement of a 45-day extension of the ceasefire.
“The name of the arch-terrorist Izz al-Din al-Haddad came up again and again” when speaking with the freed abductees, the IDF chief said.