'Far Beyond Missiles & Drones': Iran Leader Vows to Fight 'Global Arrogance'

Tehran — Iran's newly elected Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Sayyed Mojtaba Khamenei, said on Friday that the ongoing war with Israel and the United States "goes far beyond missiles, drones, torpedoes, and the battlefield." He added that the enemies of the Islamic Republic were being dealt "a dizzying blow", having miscalculated in believing the country would collapse after just three or four days of airstrikes.

Khamenei's statement, his first major policy message to Iran and the world since assuming the leadership of the country, was released on his Telegram channel and read out on Iranian state television on the occasion of the Persian New Year, Nowruz.

"By showing unity and resolve, Iranians — despite all the differences in religious, intellectual, cultural and political origins — had dealt him (the enemy) a dizzying blow, and they began to utter numerous contradictory words and many absurdities, which is a sign of lack of mindfulness and the existence of cognitive weakness," he said.

He charged that Israel and the United States had the "illusion" that if Sayyed Khamenei and other military leaders were killed, they would create "fear and despair" and "realise the dream of dominating Iran and then dividing it".

The three-week-old US and Israeli war on Iran has killed more than 3,000 and wounded more than 16,000, including hundreds of women and children, and destroyed oil depots, schools, hospitals, and thousands of residential and commercial units in the country.

Iran's retaliatory attacks on US military bases and other economic targets in the Arab Gulf countries have drawn widespread condemnation regionally and globally. Hundreds of Iranian drone and missile attacks on Israel and Gulf states have killed nearly 30 people, including foreign nationals, and caused serious damage to major energy hubs in the GCC countries.

In the message, Mojtaba Khamenei also said Iran and its allied forces in the region were "in no way" behind attacks on Oman and Turkey during the war, instead blaming "deception by the Zionist enemy" in reference to Israel.

He accused Israel of "using false-flag tactics to create division between the Islamic Republic and its neighbours" and warned, "Such actions may also occur in other countries."

Mojtaba Khamenei, 58, who was injured but survived the US-Israeli airstrike that killed his family, including his 86-year-old father on the first day of the war on 28 February, was selected by the country's leadership a week later to become the supreme leader.

He also bid farewell to the casualties of the US-Israeli aggression, specifically mentioning the 175 children of the Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab and the 84 navy officers and sailors killed in the American strike on the Dena Destroyer off the coast of Sri Lanka.

Khamenei also promised a "serious and genuine" policy of engagement with neighbouring nations, citing shared devotion to Islam, sacred sites, shared ethnicity, and "common strategic interests".