Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday that the leverage of closing the Strait of Hormuz should be used and that Iran’s attacks on Gulf Arab neighbors will continue, news agency AP reported.
This is Mojtaba Khamenei’s first public statement since his appointment as the Supreme Leader after the killing of his father Ali Khamenei in US-Israel attacks last month. The message was read on state television by a news anchor.
Khamenei did not appear on camera. Some reports based on Israeli assessment indicate that he was wounded in the war’s opening salvo.
In the message, Khamenei vowed to avenge those killed in the war, including in a strike on a school. He said Iran would “obtain compensation” from its enemy, referring to the United States.
If it refuses, Iran will “take from its assets” or destroy them to the same extent, he said, according to the news agency.
Iran’s unrelenting attacks on shipping traffic and energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf pushed oil back above $100 a barrel on Thursday, as American and Israeli strikes pounded the Islamic Republic with no sign of an end to the war in sight.
