Iran’s president and overseas minister had been among the many senior officers who joined hundreds of individuals marching by downtown Tehran on Friday, displaying defiance as U.S.-Israeli airstrikes continued, sending up plumes of smoke not removed from a crowd in response to movies posted on-line.
Iran marks “Quds [Jerusalem] Day” on the ultimate Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in solidarity with Palestinians, and that was the event for the massive rally in Tehran, however the high officers displaying up was a transparent sign to the U.S. and Israel that their ongoing strikes had not dislodged the practically 50-year-old theocracy that guidelines Iran.
New Supreme Chief Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was not seen through the rally, and there have been rumors this week that he might have been critically wounded — probably even left in a coma — in the identical strike that killed his father and predecessor on Feb. 28. However Iran watchers say, from previous expertise, it will be uncommon for the supreme chief to look in such an open discussion board as a public road rally.
“At present is Quds Day in Iran, and regardless of the brutal assaults carried out as we speak by the Zionist regime and america, we’re witnessing an enormous turnout — thousands and thousands of individuals — not simply in Tehran, however throughout all cities,” International Minister Abbas Araghchi stated in a video posted on-line, which confirmed him strolling amidst flag-waving Iranians. “This demonstrates the agency resolve of the Iranian individuals in help of the Islamic Republic, the reason for Jerusalem, Palestine, and all of the rules now we have upheld over time which have introduced us up to now. God keen, we’ll proceed with the identical energy and energy, and we’ll compel our enemies to acknowledge the energy of the Iranian individuals.”
President Masoud Pezeshkian was additionally seen in movies strolling by Tehran with different rally attendees, whereas one other clip confirmed the pinnacle of Iran’s highly effective Judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, main a prayer.
Talking with a reporter surrounded by different individuals through the march, Mohseni-Ejei was interrupted briefly by the sound of one other U.S. or Israeli strike hitting close by.
As he was saying Iran’s leaders “wish to stand with the individuals, beside the individuals, till the final breath and the final second,” a loud growth is head and he and the others round him look towards the obvious explosion, earlier than he continues: “The individuals are not intimidated by these enemy assaults. They take precautions, however beneath this rain and beneath these missile bombardments, they are going to by no means retreat from resistance.”
