Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered the Friday sermon for the first time in eight years. He spoke about the assassination of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s missile attacks on the US base in Iraq, the shooting down of the Ukraine passenger plane in Iran and the subsequent protests.

Khamenei called the events of the last two weeks “bitter sweet” for Iran. He described the large turnout for Soleimani’s funeral in Iran a “a day of God,” a term from the Quran that suggests events or days in which God’s power can be witnessed, according to Khamenei. The missile strikes on the US Ain al-Asad base were also a “day of God,” Khamenei said.

Khamenei said that the large turnout for Soleimani’s funeral showed that Iranians are following the path of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. This claim is contentious. Many Western media outlets, in their coverage of Soleimani's funeral, suggested that the large turnout was due to nationalism, in particular, Soleimani’s fight against the Islamic State in Iraq, and to feeling a sense of unity in the face of a foreign threat.

Khamenei called Soleimani “the strongest commander in fighting terrorism in the region.” His assassination has led to a scandal for the American government, he said, adding that the United States would not face Soleimani directly and that he was assassinated in a "cowardly" manner.