Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that Iran’s recent missile attack on Israel was “legal and legitimate.” He then added that the attack was the minimum punishment for Israel’s “crimes.”
Khamenei spoke to a huge crowd during Friday prayer sermons at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla mosque in central Tehran. He said that Iran will not “procrastinate nor act hastily to carry out its duty” in confronting Israel, adding that the missile attack on Israel was “legal and legitimate.”
This was his first public appearance at a Friday sermon in some years.
How It Escalated
On Tuesday, Iran launched a barrage of missiles against Israel. It said that this attack was retaliation for Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last Friday and the assassination of Hamas’ chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
“The resistance in the region will not back down even with the killing of its leaders,” Khamenei said. He added that Iran would fulfil its “duty” to allies in a considered manner.
Iran blames Israel for Haniyeh’s killing although Israel has kept silence on the issue.
Sermon Timing
This was also Khamenei’s first such sermon in more than four years. It comes just before the first anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. This attack began the war between Hamas and Israel. The war has so far led to the death of more than 41,700 Palestinians and recently spilled over into Lebanon.
Iran’s regional allies – Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis, and armed groups in Iraq – have all carried out attacks in support of the Palestinians during the Gaza war.
Israel’s Ground Offensive
After Nasrallah’s death, Israel launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon. This is an expansion of the war that has seen it repeatedly bomb Beirut and its southern suburbs.
Later that same day, Iran made a retaliatory attack on Israel, its second this year. In April, it had sent a volley of missiles following a deadly Israeli strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus.
In both attacks, nearly all missiles were intercepted by Israel or its allies, according to Israeli authorities.
