Mojtaba Khamenei vowed retaliation for the “criminal” killing of his father in a February airstrike.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has vowed to avenge his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli airstrikes on his compound in Tehran on February 28.
Khamenei made the statement after his father was laid to rest at the Imam Reza Shrine in his hometown of Mashhad on Thursday. More than 43 million people attended weeklong funeral ceremonies across Iran and Iraq, according to Iranian state media. Some mourners carried placards calling for the killing of US President Donald Trump, chanted “Death to America,” and threw stones at a billboard depicting Trump with a bullet aimed at his head.
“We pledge that we will take revenge for the pure blood of the martyred leader and all the martyrs of these two wars from the criminal and disgraced killers,” Khamenei said in a statement read on state television on Saturday.
“Revenge is the demand of our nation and must certainly be carried out. Soon, the free people of the world will carry out a part of this divine mission,” the statement added.
Khamenei has not appeared in public since the Assembly of Experts chose him to succeed his father in early March.
Trump threatened on Friday to “completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran” if Tehran attempted to assassinate him. Several US media outlets reported this week that Israel had warned Washington of what it described as a new Iranian plot against Trump.
The US and Israel killed dozens of senior Iranian officials and military commanders during the first weeks of their bombing campaign. Trump recently argued that the ceasefire, first reached in April, was effectively “over” as the two sides clashed over the interpretation of the memorandum of understanding signed on June 17.
The US carried out a third round of strikes against Iran this week in response to continued attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran blamed the US for the “incidents,” accusing Washington of “illegally designating” a shipping route near the Omani coast. Tehran has insisted that all ships use the route designated by Iran.
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