Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei in a written statement released over the weekend vowed to avenge the killing of his father, saying those responsible “will carry their dream of a peaceful death in bed to the grave.”
The message, dated July 9 and published on Saturday by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, thanked millions of Iranians and Iraqis who participated in funeral processions for the slain supreme leader and pledged to continue Ali Khamenei’s legacy of “jihad and resistance.”
Iran’s second supreme leader was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Tehran on Feb. 28 during the opening phase of “Operation Roaring Lion/Epic Fury,” the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign against the Islamic Republic.
“We pledge to avenge your pure blood and the blood of all the martyrs of these two wars by taking revenge against the criminal, disgraceful murderers,” Mojtaba Khamenei wrote in the statement.
“This vengeance is what our nation is demanding, and this must definitely be done,” he continued. “These criminals, whose names are fully documented from the highest to the lowest ranks, will carry their dream of a peaceful death in bed to the grave.”
The younger Khamenei said retaliation would not depend on any individual official and suggested that supporters of the Islamic Republic abroad could carry it out.
“Whether we are here or not, this will be done,” he said. “Soon, free-spirited people throughout the world will each carry out a part of this divine mission.”
He praised what he described as an “enemy-shattering and historic turnout” at funeral processions in Tehran, Qom, Mashhad, Najaf and Karbala, saying tens of millions of people had participated.
Funeral rites for Khamenei, which began on July 3, concluded on Thursday with his burial at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad.
Mojtaba Khamenei did not make an appearance at any of the ceremonies.
Three of Ali Khamenei’s other sons—Mostafa, Masoud and Meysam Hosseini Khamenei—appeared in public on July 5 for the first time since the war began on Feb. 28, offering prayers over their father’s body at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla of Tehran mosque.
The New York Times, citing two members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a source involved in planning the funeral, reported last week that Mojtaba Khamenei had told officials he wanted to attend the burial ceremony in Mashhad and lead the traditional prayer for the dead.
The newspaper cited the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the funeral preparations, as saying security officials had rejected the proposal over concerns Israel could attempt to assassinate the supreme leader at the ceremony or use it to track his whereabouts.
The younger Khamenei was injured in the airstrike that killed his father. While it is generally believed that Mojtaba is still alive, he has not appeared in public since the start of the war, and no video or audio recordings of him have been released.
