Khamenei's first public sermon in four years is also message to Israel

Leading Friday prayers at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla mosque in central Tehran, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered his first sermon this afternoon in more than four years, just ahead of the first anniversary of the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas.

This was also the Iranian leader’s first public appearance since Israel escalated the conflict against Hezbollah in Lebanon, first with booby-trapped pagers, and then with the bombing of capital Beirut, which killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The sermon was also the first after Iran retaliated by launching a massive barrage of missiles at Israel on 1 October.

The sermon followed a show of solidarity by other regional powers such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which have pledged to remain neutral in any conflict involving Iran and Israel. It indicated that these Arab countries would not allow the United States and other Western allies of Israel to use the military bases in their respective countries.

On Thursday, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister had travelled to Tehran to pledge support to Iran and to convey that his country would like to bury their differences with Iran. 

The sermon by Ayatollah Khamenei also called for unity among all Muslim and Arab countries. “The enemy of the Iranian nation is the same as the enemy of the nations of Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and Palestine. The enemy is one,” he declared while asserting that the axis of Islamic Resistance would not back down even if Israel and the US killed its leaders.

The message of unity countered “criticism over the past decade” that Iran had been isolating itself from the region. Significantly, in the second part of his speech, he spoke in Arabic, not Persian.

That he decided to publicly lead the Friday prayers is also a message to the Israelis that Iranian leaders have not been forced into hiding. Calling Muslim nations — “from Afghanistan to Yemen, from Iran to Gaza and Lebanon” — to rally against the common enemy Israel, the Ayatollah accused Israel of deploying “psychological”, “economic” and “military” warfare against Palestine and other Muslim countries.

Defending Iran’s attack on Israel as “legal and legitimate”, he pointed out that every country had the right to defend itself against invaders. “Our enemy is one,” he said. “If their policies are sowing the seeds of division in one country, they may prevail and once they seize control of one country, they move to the other.”

“The actions taken by our armed forces were the least punishment for the occupying Zionist regime in the face of the crimes, the unbelievable crimes committed by that regime, that bloodthirsty regime, that wolfish regime, that rabid dog,” he said, according to reports carried by Al Jazeera. Millions of Iranians participated in the prayers led by Khamenei, who is also the commander of the 'axis of resistance'.

Meanwhile, Iran’s minister of foreign affairs Abbas Araghchi landed in Beirut with humanitarian aid and a delegation. “I am in Beirut — alongside members of our Parliament and Red Crescent Society — to make clear that Iran will always stand with the people of Lebanon. We invite other regional governments to also display steadfastness in their support for Lebanon, especially amid onslaught by Israeli regime,” he posted on social media.

Iran has warned the United States that if its oil installations are targeted by Israel, not a single drop of oil and gas would be allowed to go out of West Asia. Israel, which had pledged to retaliate and extract a price for Iran’s missile attack on its military bases on Tuesday, is learned to be still weighing its options while intensifying the aerial bombing of Beirut.