Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime, addressed growing speculation about the possibility of a military attack against his regime in his speech following the Eid al-Fitr prayer. He stated that he does not believe the regime will be struck “from the outside.”
On Sunday, March 30, in Tehran’s prayer hall, Khamenei said: “They threaten to commit evil acts. We are not very certain, and we do not consider it highly likely that such evil will come from the outside. But if it does happen, they will certainly receive a strong counterblow.”
He added: “If the enemies think of inciting sedition inside the country, the Iranian nation itself will respond to them.”
These remarks come a day after U.S. President Donald Trump warned that if the Iranian regime does not agree to a deal on its nuclear program, it will be bombed.
He further stated that if an attack on Iran were to take place, “this bombing will be unlike anything they have ever seen.”
On March 30, the Tehran Times, a newspaper affiliated with the Iranian government, reported that, according to information it had received, the regime’s missiles have been mounted on launchers in all underground missile cities and are ready for launch.
Khamenei: Our Stance Against the U.S. and Israel Has Not Changed
In his remarks, Khamenei reaffirmed the continuation of the Iranian regime’s foreign policy, stating: “Everyone should know that our positions remain the same; the enmity of the U.S. and the Zionist regime is also the same as it was.”
Repeating his previous positions, he claimed that his regime does not have proxy forces and that the only proxy force in the region is Israel, which “invades countries on behalf of colonialists.”
On March 7, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he had expressed his willingness in a letter to Khamenei to negotiate over Iran’s nuclear program instead of taking military action against the regime.
The news outlet Axios reported on March 19 that the letter had a harsh tone and set a two-month deadline for reaching a new nuclear agreement.
On March 27, Abbas Araghchi, Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister, announced that Tehran had responded to Trump’s letter “appropriately and through Oman.”
The full text of Tehran’s response has not yet been officially published. However, on March 29, the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported that in its response, the Iranian government reaffirmed its long-standing positions, including refusing to negotiate over its missile program or proxy groups and refusing to engage in talks beyond the framework of the JCPOA.
Years of fruitless negotiations with Tehran have proven that this regime is only seeking to buy time and that nothing stops it from interfering in regional countries and expanding terrorism. The Iranian regime faces a legitimacy crisis and the threat of popular uprisings, and it will do anything to avoid confronting the Iranian people. In this regard, even the threat of bombing will change nothing. The only solution is to pave the way for the people and their resistance to rid the region of this regime once and for all.
