Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led Friday prayers at a mosque in Tehran on Friday for the first time since 2012, trying to rally support among intertwined crises facing his government. On the foreign front, punishing U.S.
sanctions have harmed Iran's
economy and the Trump administration's killing of Iran's top general brought the U.S. and Tehran to the brink of war. Domestically, Iranians already angry over a hike in fuel prices took to the streets this week to demand justice and accountability for the Revolutionary Guard's downing of a Ukrainian jetliner, killing 176 people, most of them Iranian.In nationally broadcast comments from inside the Mosalla mosque, Khamenei, 80, said the missiles fired on the Ukrainian jet were a "bitter accident" and defended the Revolutionary Guard, which reports directly to him. "Our enemies were as happy about the
plane crash as we were sad," he said. "Happy that they had found something to question the Guard and the armed forces." He called
President Trump, who has been encouraging the antigovernment
protests, a "clown" who is only pretending to support Iran's people and would just as soon "push a poisonous dagger" into their backs.Khamenei also addressed the
missile strikes on two Iraqi bases hosting U.S. forces, calling the a "slap on the face" to the U.S. "The fact that
Iran has the power to give such a slap to a world power shows the hand of God," he said, but pushing the U.S. military out of the
Middle East would be the "real punishment" for America's "cowardly" killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, highlighting Soleimani's efficacy in battling the Islamic State. He added that the killing showed America's "terrorist nature.""Leading Friday prayers in the capital is a symbolically significant act usually reserved for times when Iran's highest authority wishes to deliver an important message,"
BBC News reports, citing Mehdi Khalaji at the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy.More stories from theweek.com
Ukraine gives Trump the corruption investigation he asked for Trump again denied knowing Lev Parnas. So Parnas' lawyer posted more robust proof.
Is the media about to have a conniption fit over Bernie Sanders?