Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Friday described Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of some 1,200 people in Israel as “logical and legal,” and vowed that the Jewish state “will not last long.”
During a rare Friday sermon, Khamenei also defended the Islamic Republic’s massive ballistic missile assault on Israel on Tuesday, saying it “was the minimum punishment for the crimes of the usurping Zionist regime,” and claiming it accorded with international law, as well as Islamic beliefs.
“The resistance in the region will not back down with these martyrdoms, and will win,” the 85-year-old told a crowd of tens of thousands gathered at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla mosque in central Tehran.
“Israel will never defeat Hamas and Hezbollah,” he said, adding that the Iranian terrorist proxies were waging legitimate wars against Israel.
“No one has the right to criticize them,” said Khamenei, who held a rifle by his side during the address.
Ahead of the speech, the Iranian leader presided over a ceremony for Hezbollah terror master Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut on Sept. 27 alongside Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps deputy commander Brig. Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sept. 29 said Nasrallah was “not just another terrorist, he was the terrorist. He was the axis of the axes, the main engine of Iran’s axis of evil. He and his people were the architects of the plan to destroy Israel.”
The terror chief’s targeted killing was “a necessary condition in achieving the objectives we have set: Returning the residents of the north safely to their homes and changing the balance of power in the region for years,” said Netanyahu.
Following the assassination, Khamenei was transferred to a more secure location, Reuters reported, citing two regional officials. Before that, he called on Muslims to “stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the … wicked regime [Israel].”
On Friday, Khamenei described Israel as a “malicious regime” that has “only kept itself standing by the injection of American support.”
The Jewish state “will not last long,” he said.
Khamenei last led Friday prayers in January 2020, after a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad killed then-IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.
In the aftermath of Tuesday’s mass ballistic missile attack on Israel, Netanyahu warned that Iran had “made a big mistake—and it will pay for it. The regime in Tehran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and to exact a price from our enemies. ...
“Israel has the momentum and the axis of evil is in retreat,” the prime minister added. “We will do whatever needs to be done to continue this trend. To achieve all of our war objectives, especially the return of all of our hostages, and ensure our existence and our future.”
