Iran’s supreme chief struck a defiant tone in a uncommon public sermon on Friday, calling the US an “conceited energy” and telling tens of hundreds
Iran’s supreme chief struck a defiant tone in a uncommon public sermon on Friday, calling the US an “conceited energy” and telling tens of hundreds of chanting worshipers that God’s backing had allowed his nation to “slap the face” of the US.
In his first such deal with in eight years, the chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sought to rally his supporters after weeks of turbulence in Iran and the broader Center East, marked by fears of a war between Iran and the United States and street protests in Iran over the accidental downing of a civilian jetliner.
Pausing sometimes whereas his viewers chanted, Mr. Khamenei referred to the US’ killing of Iran’s strongest safety official, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, and to the retaliatory Iranian missile attack on military bases in Iraq that home United States troops.
“These two weeks had been extraordinary and eventful. Bitter and candy occasions. Classes we discovered. The Iranian individuals went by lots,” he mentioned. “We delivered a slap to U.S.’s picture as a superpower.”
The occasion, choreographed to current a picture of energy and unity, skirted the unintended downing of a Ukrainian passenger airplane on Jan. eight by Iranian forces that killed all 176 individuals on board. A lone banner that includes an airplane hung between big photos of Common Suleimani.
The downing of the jet — adopted by three days of denials by Iranian officers — spurred a brand new wave of protests throughout the nation that Iranian safety forces have sought to quell.
Forgoing Tehran College, the place Mr. Khamenei often speaks, he appeared for communal Muslim prayers on Friday at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla, an indoor and out of doors advanced used as a communal prayer middle for Muslim holidays and as an area for election campaigns.
Crowds estimated to be within the hundreds streamed in a number of hours earlier than his sermon started, together with schoolchildren, authorities staff and worshipers from neighboring provinces who had been bused in from their native mosques.
The advanced had been outfitted with political messages: American flags had been unfold on the ground within the entrances in order that worshipers may tread on them. Uniformed troopers handed out posters of Common Suleimani and purple headbands with “God is Nice” written in Arabic.
Massive banners inside featured the face of Common Suleimani and different males who had been killed alongside him in United States drone strikes, ordered by President Trump, close to the Baghdad airport on Jan. 2. Different banners learn, “Loss of life to America.”
Mr. Khamenei, 80, Iran’s prime political and spiritual official, delivers Friday sermons solely at occasions of great disaster that require his intervention. His final such sermon was in 2012, throughout the Arab Spring uprisings within the area. He additionally spoke in 2009, throughout widespread protests in Iran contesting the outcomes of a presidential election that grew to become often known as the Inexperienced Motion.
In each cases, Mr. Khamenei’s bolstered the federal government’s laborious line by ordering individuals off the streets.