Iran’s leader vows to keep up attacks in first statement since being appointed

Iran’s secretive new supreme leader vowed on Thursday to keep up attacks on Gulf Arab countries and use the effective closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz as leverage against the United States and Israel.

It was his first public statement since he succeeded his father, who was killed in an Israeli strike.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, who an Iranian official said was wounded in the opening salvo of the war, has not appeared in public since then.

In the statement read by a state TV news presenter, he vowed to avenge those killed in the war, including in a strike on a school that killed more than 165 people.

His comments signalled no plans for talks to end the war, which has disrupted global energy supplies, international travel and the relative safety enjoyed by the Gulf Arab states.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the new supreme leader as a “puppet of the Revolutionary Guards” who cannot appear in public.

And he addressed the Iranian people, calling this a moment for a “new path of freedom”.

But “at the end of the day, it depends on you. It is in your hands,” he added at a news conference. “We are creating the optimal conditions for the fall of the regime.”

US and Israeli strikes have exacted a heavy toll on Iran’s leadership, military and ballistic missile programme but have failed to topple the government, which US President Donald Trump has at times suggested is his goal.

Mr Netanyahu said Israeli attacks had killed a top Iranian nuclear scientist and hit others.

The US and Israel say that destroying whatever remains of Iran’s nuclear programme is one of the central aims of the war.

They have long suspected Iran seeks nuclear weapons, while the Islamic Republic says its nuclear programme is peaceful.

Israel said earlier it struck a nuclear facility in Iran in recent days that it had destroyed with an airstrike in October 2024. Earlier this year, satellite photos raised concerns that Iran was working to restore the facility.

As Mr Netanyahu spoke, the Israeli military said it had detected a new barrage of missiles launched from Iran toward Israel.

Rescue efforts were under way after an American military refuelling plane went down in Iraq, the US military said on Thursday.

The KC-135 aircraft is part of the operation against Iran, but the crash was not because of hostile fire or friendly fire, the military said.

US Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said in a statement that two aircraft were involved. One landed safely, while the other went down in western Iraq.

Iran is trying to inflict enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to halt their bombardment, which began on February 28.

Mr Trump has promised to “finish the job”, even though he claimed Iran is “virtually destroyed”.

He said in a social media post on Thursday that ensuring Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon was a higher priority than soaring oil prices.

The US military said on Thursday that American forces have now struck more than 6,000 targets since the operation against Iran began, including more than 30 minelaying vessels.

Meanwhile, Iran-backed Hezbollah militants launched some 200 rockets from Lebanon at northern Israel while sirens rang out and loud booms from the interception of Iranian missiles could be heard in other areas.

Israel launched another wave of attacks on Tehran and in Lebanon.

The UN refugee agency said up to 3.2 million people in Iran have been displaced by the ongoing war.

It said most have fled from Tehran and other major cities towards the north of the country or rural areas. About 800,000 people have been internally displaced in Lebanon, prompting fears of a humanitarian crisis.

Mr Khamenei called on Gulf Arabs to “shut down” US bases in the region, saying protection promised by Washington was “nothing more than a lie”.

He also said Iran has studied “opening other fronts in which the enemy has little experience and would be highly vulnerable” if the war continues.

He did not elaborate, but Iran has been linked to previous attacks on US, Israeli and Jewish targets around the world.

Mr Khamenei is close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and is widely seen as even less compromising than his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His location is unknown, and he is likely a prime target for the US and Israel.

In addition to attacking energy infrastructure across the region, Iran has also effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway leading from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil flows.

At a news conference on Thursday, Iran’s ambassador to Tunisia, Mir Masoud Hosseinian, said Iranian naval forces “have established full control” over the strait and “carried out precise strikes in response to attacks on our oil infrastructure”.

“Global energy security is contingent on respect for Iran’s sovereignty,” he said.

He told The Associated Press the new supreme leader was wounded in the attack on his family’s home that killed his wife and father, but “it is not serious”.

The hope is he will attend the massive, state-organised Eid prayer next week that his father traditionally led.

He added that Iran’s strikes on Gulf nations have also been strategic.

“Even when we targeted hotels, we had precise information that they were hosting American and Israeli soldiers,” he said.

The war sent oil prices back to 100 dollars per barrel, and stocks sank worldwide.