Tehran: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that the country’s missile attack on US troops in Iraq earlier this month was a ‘blow to America’s image’ as a superpower, as he led prayers in Tehran for the first time since 2012.
Khamenei said America had ‘cowardly’ murdered the most effective commander in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group when it killed General Qassem Soleimani in a US airstrike in Baghdad.
In response, Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting US troops in Iraq, without causing serious injuries. As Iran’s Revolutionary Guard braced for an American counterattack that never came, it mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian jetliner shortly after it took off from Tehran’s international airport, killing all 176 passengers on board, mostly Iranians.
Khamenei has held the country’s top office since 1989 and has the final say on all major decisions.
The 80-year-old leader openly wept at the funeral of Soleimani and vowed ‘harsh retaliation’ against the US.
Tensions between Iran and the United States have steadily escalated since President Donald Trump withdrew the US from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which had imposed restrictions on its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.
Khamenei last delivered a Friday sermon in February 2012, when he called Israel a ‘cancerous tumour’ and vowed to support anyone confronting it. He also warned against any US strikes on Iran over its nuclear programme, saying the US would be damaged ‘10 times over’.
AP