Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei slammed Israel in a speech marking the end of Ramadan on Wednesday. He accused Israel of being behind the airstrike in Damascus on April 1 that killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander Mohammad Zahedi and others.
The airstrike hit a building that is part of the Iranian consulate compound. The building is used by the IRGC. Iran has vowed revenge.
“Referring to the Zionist regime’s air attack on the Iranian consulate, Ayatollah Khamenei clarified in his lecture: The evil regime itself, which is full of errors and evil, added one more error to its errors, and that was the attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria,” Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported.
Iran views the consulate as part of its own soil and thus views the attack as an attack on Iran itself.
“The leader of the revolution emphasized: The evil regime made a mistake in this matter and will be punished. Of course, we mourned our martyrs,” the report said.
Khamenei called on people to take this opportunity to observe the end of Ramadan. His speech began with a message of religious devotion, calling on people to be thankful to God, and “our advice is to keep this spiritual reserve for yourself… Especially our dear young people who, thank God, have a desire to remember, pray and be religious,” Tasnim reported.
Gaza remarks
Iran’s regime does not seek to “force people to become religious,” he said, citing reports that some people had “pretended to fast” during the month, the report said.
Khamenei also focused on Gaza during his speech, accusing Israel of killing “defenseless people.”
Iran has sought to exploit the war in Gaza since Hamas launched its attack and massacre on Israel on October 7. Khamenei slammed Western governments for supporting Israel. Most Western governments had only paid lip service to supporting people in Gaza and had not acted to stop the war, he said, criticizing the “arrogant and cruel governments of America and England.”
Iran has encouraged militias in Iraq and Syria to attack US forces since October 7. One attack by Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah killed three Americans in Jordan in January. Iran has also supported attacks against commercial ships by the Houthis in Yemen.
In the last part of his speech, Khamenei spoke about recent incidents in Iran near the border with Pakistan and the need to protect the country’s borders. He was referring to recent attacks on Iranian security forces by rebels in Balochistan.
The Baloch people are suppressed by Iran, and they have carried out attacks on Iranian forces and also on Pakistan forces in recent months. Iran carried out missile attacks on Pakistan in January, targeting a Baloch rebel group called Jaish ul-Adl.
اگر ایران از خاک خود حمله کند، اسرائیل واکنش نشان داده و در ایران حمله خواهد کرد @khamenei_ir
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) April 10, 2024