IRAN’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who is yet to appear in public, vowed on Thursday to avenge the deaths since the start of the war with the US and Israel, in a statement read out by a presenter on state TV.
“A limited amount of this revenge has so far taken concrete form, but until it is fully achieved, this case will remain among our priorities,” Khamenei, said according to the statement.
“We will seek compensation from the enemy, and if they refuse, we will take as much of their property as we determine, and if that is not possible, we will destroy the same amount of his property,” he added.
Iran’s health ministry said on March 8 that more than 1,200 people had been killed, and over 10,000 civilians injured.
It was his first statement since he was proclaimed as the Islamic republic’s new supreme leader on Sunday and after the killing of his father and predecessor in US and Israeli strikes.
On February 28, the US and Israel killed late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in initial strikes which triggered a war that has since spread across the Middle East.
Iran has responded with drone and missile strikes on Israel and US interests across the region and effectively closed the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
The 56-year-old Khamenei has yet to make a public appearance since his appointment and state television had reported he had been wounded during the ongoing war.
In his statement, Khamenei called for the closure of US bases across the region, saying “the claim of establishing security and peace by America was nothing more than a lie.”
He also called for using “the lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz” — a strategic waterway through which a fifth of global oil passes.
The new leader also thanked Iran’s allies in the region including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups in Iraq.
“We consider the countries of the Resistance Front our best friends, and the cause of resistance and the Resistance Front are an inseparable part of the values of the Islamic Revolution,” he said.
Following the reading of the statement, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had launch strikes on Israel and US bases across in tribute to Khamenei and his family.