After Years of Praying, Ayatollah Khamenei Again Leads Friday in Iran. For the first time since 2012, Iran’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was the pastor of Friday’s most important Friday prayer in the capital, Tehran.
During that prayer, he called the day when Iran attacked American targets “a day of God.” A large crowd then chanted “Death to America!”.
“That Iran has the power to hit such an arrogant world power in the face shows the hand of God,” said Khamenei. He thereby referred to Iran’s retaliation attack on the US after the Americans had killed the important Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
Ayatollah compared Americans with “clowns”.
Since the death of Soleimani as a result of the attack in Iraq, tensions between Iran and the US have increased considerably. Various American targets have already been attacked. Several soldiers were wounded.
The spiritual leader also reacted on Friday to the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane by Iran last Wednesday. He called the crash, in which all 176 passengers died, “a tragic and unfortunate incident.”
Iran initially denied anything to do with the air disaster, but later confessed. This led to anger among many Iranians who took to the streets to protest against the regime. Khamenei called for “national unity” during prayer on Friday.