By Staff, Agencies

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei has hailed “the brilliant work of our armed forces” in launching a missile strike on the Tel Aviv area, saying it was “completely legal and legitimate”.

Imam Khamenei delivered a public sermon at the weekly Friday prayer to a huge number of worshipers gathered at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla mosque in central Tehran.

“The brilliant work of our armed forces was completely legal and legitimate. What our armed forces did was the least punishment for the usurping Zionist entity over the astonishing crimes of this wolf-like regime and rabid dog of America," he said.

Imam Khamenei further stated: “Whatever duty the Islamic Republic has in this regard, it will fulfill with strength and fortitude. We will neither delay nor hurry in carrying out the task.

“What is logical and reasonable and the opinion of the political and military decision makers will be done in the future, if necessary, just like it been done,” he stated.

The prayer in Tehran followed a commemoration ceremony for Hezbollah Greatest Martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah who was assassinated in an “Israeli” airstrike in Beirut. Imam Khamenei last led Friday prayers in January 2020 after Iran fired missiles at a US army base in Iraq, in response to a strike that martyred anti-terror commander Brigadier General Qassem Soleimani.

Imam Khamenei described Nasrallah "my brother, my dear and my pride, the beloved face of the Islamic world, and the eloquent voice of the nations of the region, [and] the shining jewel of Lebanon".

“I felt it necessary to pay tribute to Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah [May God bless him and grant him peace] in the Friday prayer in Tehran, and to convey some notifications to everyone,” the Leader said.

“The audience of this sermon is the whole Islamic world, but it is specially addressed to the dear nation of Lebanon and Palestine,” he said.

In parallel, Imam Khamenei underlined “We are all saddened and mourned by the martyrdom of Dear Sayyed. This is a great loss and we are deeply saddened, but our mourning does not mean depression, distress and despair.”

“It is a kind of mourning for the Master of Martyrs Hussein ibn Ali. It is enlivening, instructive, motivating, and hopeful,” the Leader said, referring to Imam Hussein [AS], the third Imam of Shia Muslims.

Imam Khamenei assured that though Sayyed Nasrallah's body has left this world, “his true personality, his soul, his way, and his expressive voice are still among us and will be with us forever”.

“He was the high flag of resistance against oppressive and predatory demons - an eloquent voice and a brave defender of the oppressed. He was a source of encouragement and valor for fighters and rights seekers. His popularity and influence had gone beyond Lebanon, Iran and Arab countries, and now his martyrdom will increase this influence.”

On another level, the Leader urged all Muslims to bound to “pay their debt to the wounded and bloody Lebanon”.

“Hezbollah and the Martyr Sayyed, by defending Gaza and Jihad for Al-Aqsa Mosque and striking the usurping and tyrannical regime, took a step in the path of vital service to the entire region and the entire Islamic world,” the Leader said.

The relentless defense of the Lebanese people for the Palestinians, he said, is “legal, reasonable, logical and legitimate, and no one has the right to criticize them for entering this battle”.

By the same token, the Al-Aqsa Flood operation of Palestinian fighters inside the “Israeli” occupied territories in October 2023 was “right and international legal”, he added.

“The Palestinian nation has the right to stand against the aggressors, and no court has the right to protest against the Palestinian nation for standing against the usurping enemy of Palestine.”

Imam Khamenei said the adamancy of the US and its allies on protecting Israel is a “cover for the deadly policy of turning the usurping entity into their tool to take over all the resources of this region and use it in major global conflicts”.

“Their policy is to turn the entity into a gateway for the export of energy from the region to the Western world and the import of goods and technology from the West to the region.

“This tells us that every attack on the entity by anyone and every group is a service to the entire region and to the entire humanity,” he added.

Imam Khamenei said, “This Zionist and American dream is definitely a false and impossible fantasy. The regime is the evil tree uprooted from the earth, which according to divine truth has no abode.”

The Zionist entity, the Leader said, has kept itself afloat simply by being injecting American support, adding this will not last long.

“Today, the Zionist criminal gang itself has come to the conclusion that they will never win over Hamas and Hezbollah.

The Leader called on Muslims to unite against the world’s arrogant powers and transgressors who are still following their policy of divide and conquer with all kinds of tricks in Islamic states.

“The policy of the Qur'an is that Muslim nations and groups should have solidarity, and if you have this solidarity, divine wisdom will support you and you will overcome all obstacles and win over all enemies."

The Leader said the time has come for the Islamic Ummah to overcome the plots of the enemies.

"The enemy of the Iranian nation is the enemy of the Palestinian nation, the Lebanese nation, the Iraqi nation, the Egyptian nation, the Syrian nation and the Yemeni nation. The enemy is the same.”