Iran's Khamenei seeks to navigate between defiance, de-escalation after missile salvo
In his first public Friday sermon in over four years, the Iranian leader demonstrated defiance yet seemed keen to avoid further escalation by signaling to Israel that Tehran has no appetite for a direct confrontation and prefers its regional proxies to wage the limited battle on its behalf.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defended Iran's recent missile strikes against Israel, reiterated Tehran's support for the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, and praised Hamas for the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, as the Gaza war neared its first anniversary.
Khamenei delivered a 40-minute Friday prayer sermon to a large crowd of loyalists in central Tehran that focused on addressing the ongoing tensions between Iran and Israel, which have seen the two inching closer to a full-scale conflict. The last time Khamenei delivered a Friday prayer publicly was in January 2020, after the United States killed the most powerful Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani, in a drone strike near Baghdad International Airport.
The octogenarian leader hailed Iran's missile barrage earlier this week as a "brilliant and absolutely lawful" move. "The measure by our armed forces was the slightest punishment for the shocking crimes" of Israel, which he referred to in a chain of pejorative terms as "usurping, blood-sucking, wolfish and the rabid dog of America in the region."
Khamenei's remarks came after Israel warned that Tehran would "pay the price for the big mistake" it made by launching the missile attack, which Iranian officials said was retaliation for Israeli "atrocities," most notably the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a Beirut strike on Sept. 23.
