Iran's Supreme Leader issues statement calling on Muslim leaders to 'unite' and 'recognise their real enemy'
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has urged Gulf leaders to identify their "real enemy", understand its plans and confront it.
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has urged Gulf leaders to identify their "real enemy", understand its plans and confront it - in his first statement in months.
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The written message, marking the birthday of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad’s birthday was published on Khamenei’s Telegram account
It comes six months after the elusive leader was last seen in public after being injured in US/Israeli airstrikes that started the war and killed his father.
In the statement, he said: “They strive to turn various racial, cultural, social, economic, political, and geographical differences into pretexts for creating discord among Muslim people in Iran and in any other Islamic country,” read the leader’s statement.
“From this perspective, they observe the fragmentation of the Islamic Ummah and the weakening of its forces, waiting for the opportune moment to impose their dominance over them.”
He urged against any action that could divide Muslims.
“Would the Palestinian nation be so defenceless, subjected to the oppression and crimes of the occupiers, if Muslims were united, clenching their fists with strength?” said Khamenei.
“And would the nations and governments residing around the Persian Gulf have the courage to let corrupt and identity-less scoundrels from thousands of kilometers away covet their lands and assets if they established their unity under the banner of Islam?”
He urged Muslim heads of state to “recognise their real enemy, understand its plans, and confront it”.
“The criminal rulers of America and the fake Zionist regime are sworn enemies of this unity and friendship,” said Khamenei.
“They are not only enemies of the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation, as well as the vast front of Islamic resistance; they also harbour animosity towards the entire Muslim Ummah, including the nations of West Asia and North Africa.”
Prior to the statement, the only correspondence from Khamenei to the Iranian people has come in the form of a series of written messages that have been read aloud by news broadcasters.
He was even notably absent from his father’s extensive funeral ceremonies last month.
Those close to Khamenei have attributed his absence to fears of being assassinated and insist he regularly holds meetings with top officials, has oversight on all major reports and makes all final decisions.
Iran’s top trading partners, including China, Turkey, and the UAE, all announced last week they would stop all trade with the country.
This marked a blow to the Islamic Republic, which still insisted it was confident its partners would continue to trade with it.