Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since taking over after his father’s assassination at the start of the war, delivered a defiant Eid al-Fitr and Nowruz message on Friday.
In the written statement, read on state television, he dismissed US-Israeli strikes as a failed attempt to destabilise the country, even as the war completes its third week. Track US-Iran war LIVE updates
‘Illusion’ of regime change
Khamenei pushed back strongly against US and Israeli objectives, saying their strategy was flawed from the outset.
He said the attacks were based on an illusion that killing top leaders could trigger the collapse of the system, asserting instead that public unity had strengthened the state.
“This war took place with the illusion that if they martyred the head of the system and a number of influential military figures, it would create fear and despair in people, and in this way, it would realize the dream of dominating Iran and then disintegrating it,” he said.
Remembering Minab school and Dena attcks
Khamenei detailed losses across civilian and military ranks.
“From the first day of war, we gradually & sorrowfully bode farewell to other martyrs, including the children of Minab school, stars of Dena Destroyer, martyred fighters of IRGC, the army, the Basij, the police and security forces, brave border guards & the rest of the nation.”
He was refferring to the Minab school attack, which state media said killed at least 165 people, mostly children. The Iranian government has said that the incident was a result of US-Israeli strikes, however, US President Donald Trump has denied US role, saying that the investigation is still ongoing.
Separately, the United States has confirmed sinking an Iranian naval vessel, IRIS Dena, near Sri Lanka, an incident that left 87 people dead.
Three wars in one year
Framing the conflict in phases, Khamenei said: “In the past year, our people have experienced three military and security wars.”
On the first phase, he said: “The first war was the June war, when the Zionist enemy, with the special help of the United States and in the midst of negotiations, martyred about 1,000 of our fellow citizens.”
He added that expectations of internal unrest did not materialise: “During first war in June, enemy thought it’d be the people who would overthrow the Islamic system. But with people’s vigilance & unparalleled bravery of Islam’s fighters, indications of desperation appeared in them, & it saved itself through mediation and cessation of fighting.”
Describing the second phase, he said: “The second war was the January Coup, when the US and the Zionist regime, thinking that the Iranian people were implementing the enemy’s vision due to the economic problems, used their mercenaries to create countless disasters.”
On the current phase, he said: “The third war is the war that we are now in the middle of, and on the first day of which, with tearful eyes and sad and broken hearts, we bode farewell to our great Leader.”
‘Dizzying blow’ to enemies
Khamenei repeatedly stressed that Iran had turned the tide through unity.
Iranians, he said, had “dealt him (the enemy) a dizzying blow so that he now starts uttering contradictory words and nonsense.”
He also praised what he described as grassroots mobilisation, saying people were “building a nationwide defensive front and strongholds across cities, neighbourhoods, and mosques, delivering such a bewildering blow that the enemy fell into contradictions and irrational statements.”
“At the moment, due to the particular unity that has been created between you our compatriots – despite all the differences in religious, intellectual, cultural and political origins – the enemy has been defeated,” he said.
‘No role in Oman, Turkey attacks’
Addressing reports of attacks beyond Iran, Khamenei denied any involvement.
He said Iran and allied forces were “in no way” behind attacks on Oman and Turkey, blaming instead “deception by the Zionist enemy.”
Khamenei also used the message to set the tone for the year ahead, naming it the year of a “resistance economy under national unity and national security.”
The message was released via his Telegram channel and was broadcasted on state television.
(With AFP, AP, Reuters inputs)
