Iran’s supreme leader stresses that the countries of the Middle East “will no longer be shields for US bases”

The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, stressed this Tuesday that the countries of the Middle East “will no longer be shields for the bases of the United States” and has appealed to improve relations between regional states after the conflict opened by the offensive launched by surprise on February 28 by US and Israeli forces against the Asian country.

“What is certain is that the hands of the clock will not turn back and that the nations and lands of the region will no longer be shields for American bases,” Khamenei said in a message written on the occasion of the beginning of the pilgrimage to Mecca, collected by the public television channel, IRIB.

“There will no longer continue to be havens for evil and the establishment of military bases in the region, as the United States moves away day by day from its previous status,” he noted, before “sincerely” inviting “all Islamic countries and governments to friendship and cooperation” for the benefit of Muslim communities and to “resolve the problems of the Islamic world.”

Thus, he explained that “the nations of the region have many common capabilities and interests that will determine the new order and future geometry of the region and the world”, while praising the work of the forces of Iran and other groups allied to Tehran in the region for “their victories against the terrorist and heavily armed American-Zionist armies.”

Khamenei has also highlighted the relevance of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which “overthrew the tyrannical, dictatorial and dependent regime of the Pahlavi, cutting off the hands and feet of the arrogant and greedy Americans and completely cutting off the influence of Zionism (in the Asian country).”

“It was the weapon of ‘God is the greatest’ that, after the invasion of Iranian territory by Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime, the mujahideen (…) created an eight-year epic of sacred defense, continuing their resistance with firmness and perseverance during the following years in the face of blockades, coups, cruel sanctions and countless attacks at the political, propaganda and economic levels,” he argued.

In this sense, he has highlighted “the failure of the enemies to make Iran surrender” during the aforementioned offensive and has stated that “from now on, ‘Death to the United States’ and ‘Death to Israel’ will be the common slogans of the Islamic nation and the oppressed peoples of the world, especially among young people.”

The message has been published again in writing, after Khamenei has not appeared in public since his appointment as head of the country, replacing his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in a bombing on February 28, in the early stages of the US and Israeli offensive.

The spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Health, Hosein Kermanpur, said on Monday that Khamenei was admitted to a hospital along with others wounded in the attack, in which his father and several of his relatives, including his wife, died. “Apart from superficial wounds to the face, head and legs, which did not cause any amputation or a more serious medical problem,” he said.

Previously, the Secretary of Defense of the United States, Pete Hegseth, had stated that the new Iranian supreme leader was “disfigured” as a result of the attack, amid speculation about the state of health and the whereabouts of Khamenei, who would be communicating through a network of messengers to convey his instructions.