Ayatollah Khamenei Delivered a Telling Sermon

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered his first Friday prayer address since 2012. (Wikimedia Commons)

In a rare move, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led an impassioned Friday prayer in Tehran on 17 January. His speech denounced Western powers and asserted the power of Iran. It marks Khamenei’s first Friday sermon in eight years, reports NPR.

In his address, Khamenei cast doubt on U.S. intentions, claiming that U.S. leaders sought to push “a knife into the chest of the people” of Iran, according to CNN. He also referred to the Trump administration as “clowns” and condemned their “cowardly actions” in the region. The Telegraph reports that Khamenei went on to criticize European countries as “lackeys” of the United States, painting them as duplicitous in their dealings in the Middle East. He specifically referenced the supporting role major European powers played in the Iraq-Iran war.

While dressing down Western elites, Khamenei projected an image of a powerful and righteous Iran. According to TIME, he assured the crowd that Western tactics had failed to “bring Iranians to their knees” and promised that Iran would never negotiate with the U.S. In a spiritual twist, CNN reports that he asserted that Iran’s retaliatory strikes against a U.S. base reflected “the divine hand of God,” and he painted Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian general assassinated by a U.S. drone strike on 3 January, as a martyr.

Khamenei’s address served as more than just a religious service or policy announcement. In a fraught domestic moment, the ayatollah’s charged rhetoric represents an attempt to project authority and promote national unity. Since Iran admitted to downing a passenger plane a week prior to Khamenei’s speech, protests denouncing current leadership and demanding reform have rocked the country, reports Al Jazeera. In light of this civil unrest, Khamenei’s sermon calling for a rejection of the West and inflating Iranian pride reflects not only the frustrations of one man but also the Iranian government’s growing anxiety.