New Iran Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei says Strait of Hormuz must remain shut in first message

By Haley Ott

Iran's state-run media issued on Thursday the first public statement attributed to the Islamic Republic's new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, since his appointment in the wake of his father and predecessor Ali Khamenei's killing on Feb. 28, in the initial U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.

His statement was read out by a presenter on Iranian state television and accompanied by a photo of Khamenei, but no audio or video of the new leader. The format in which the Iranian regime released his statement did little to quell rumors that he could actually have been incapacitated, possibly even left in a coma, in the same strike that killed his father and mother. 

An Iranian official said Wednesday that the new supreme leader was injured in the attack, but "alive and well," though he has not been seen since the war began.

In the statement read by the presenter on Thursday, attributed to Khamanei, he says he learned of his appointment on state TV along with everyone else in Iran, and that it would be difficult to follow in his father's footsteps.

"I had the opportunity to visit [the former Supreme Leader's] body after his martyrdom. What I saw was a mountain of strength, and I heard that his healthy hand was clenched in a fist," he said.

The statement went on to say that during the time before Khamenei was appointed as the new supreme leader, in the days after his father was killed, "it was you, the people, who led the country and guaranteed its authority."

He expressed "sincere gratitude to our brave warriors" and added that "the lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must definitely continue to be used" as a tool in the ongoing war with the U.S. and Israel.

"Studies have been conducted on opening other fronts in which the enemy has little experience and will be extremely vulnerable in them, and their activation will be carried out if the war situation continues and based on the observance of interests," he said.

He also thanked "the warriors of the Resistance Front," describing them as the Islamic Republic's "best friends," seemingly referring to Iran's network of armed proxy groups across the Middle East.

"The brave and faithful Yemen did not stop defending the oppressed people of Gaza, and the devoted Hezbollah has come to the aid of the Islamic Republic despite all obstacles, and the Iraqi resistance has also courageously taken the same line," the statement said. 

Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have so far not intervened on Tehran's behalf since the U.S. and Israel launched their assault. Hezbollah has launched weapons at Israel and possibly other targets and has been the focus of a widespread and still expanding Israeli military assault in Lebanon this week. 

To Iranians who lost loved ones, or who were hurt or had their businesses damaged in the U.S.-Israeli strikes, Khamenei expressed his sympathy and noted that he had also lost, in addition to his father, his wife, sister and other relatives.

The message also urged Iranians who had lost loved ones to have patience and faith in the promise of God, adding that Iran would "not refrain from avenging the blood of your martyrs. The revenge we intend is not only related to the martyrdom of the Supreme Leader of the Revolution; rather, every member of the nation who is martyred by the enemy is an independent subject for the revenge case."  

"We will receive compensation from the enemy, and if he refuses, we will take as much of his property as we determine, and if that is not possible, we will destroy the same amount of his property," he declared.

The statement went on to say Iran had always been and was still "willing to have warm and constructive relations with all" of its regional neighbors, but said "the enemy has been gradually establishing military and financial bases in some of these countries for years in order to secure its dominance over the region," seemingly justifying Iran's missile and drone attacks on its Gulf neighbors over the past 13 days.

Addressing why Iran was targeting other Gulf nations, the statement said "some military bases were used" in the ongoing U.S.-Israeli attack, "and naturally, as we had explicitly warned, we simply attacked those bases without attacking those countries. From now on, we will inevitably continue to do so, although we still believe in the need for friendship between ourselves and our neighbors.

These countries must make their duty clear to the invaders of our beloved homeland and the murderers of our people. I recommend that they close those bases as soon as possible; because they must have realized by now that the claim of establishing security and peace by America was nothing more than a lie."