Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei issued a strong warning to the United States, saying that the Iranian people would resist Washington’s demand to be “obedient”.
“The US wants Iran to be obedient to it. The Iranian nation is deeply offended by such a great insult and will stand with all its strength against those who harbour such a false expectation of the Iranian people,” he said.
Speaking in Tehran on Sunday, Khamenei rejected calls for direct negotiations with Washington and said US hostility has been consistent since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, according to news agency IRNA.
He referred to a June 13 attack on Iran, alleging that US-linked groups met in a European capital the next day to discuss a “post-Islamic Republic” order, even proposing a monarch. Those efforts, he claimed, were thwarted by the resilience of the Iranian people and state institutions.
The rare Israeli and US attacks in June, which targeted key nuclear sites and prompted Iranian retaliation, were designed to destabilise the Islamic Republic, Khamenei argued.
Khamenei further urged domestic unity and support for President Masoud Pezeshkian, warning that Iran’s adversaries were now seeking to stir divisions at home.
He also condemned Israel’s campaign in Gaza, called on Western states to halt support for it, and praised actions by Yemen’s Houthi movement against Israel as justified.
Relations between Tehran and Washington were cut off after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the resulting hostage crisis at the US embassy. Since then, Washington has imposed multiple waves of sanctions on Tehran, most recently due to its nuclear program.
(With inputs from agencies)