OCTOBER 4, 2024-  In his first public sermon in five years, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a defiant speech against Israel, declaring that it won’t last long and expressing strong support for Palestinian and Lebanese movements. Addressing tens of thousands at Tehran’s Mosalla mosque, Khamenei framed the missile strikes on Israel as a justified act of resistance and praised the legacy of Hezbollah’s late leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed recently in an Israeli airstrike.

A gun by his side, the supreme leader dismissed any chance of Israel prevailing against Hamas or Hezbollah. Khamenei characterized Israel as a tool of the United States and vowed that the Zionist regime would be uprooted from the ground. His rare appearance comes amid heightened tensions following missile strikes on Israel and serves as a symbolic show of defiance against Israel and its Western allies.

Khamenei also emphasized it was the duty of all Muslims to support Lebanon and Palestine in their fight against what he described as an illegal occupation.