By Jana Choukeir
(Reuters) -With a rifle by his side, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared in public on Friday for the first time since Iran’s latest missile attack on Israel, describing the strike as legitimate punishment for what he called Israeli crimes.
Delivering his first Friday prayers sermon in nearly five years, Khamenei said resistance against Israel in the region would not back down even with the killing of its leaders.
Every now and then his hand grasped the barrel of a rifle that stood to his left. Khamenei occasionally speaks in public with a rifle at his side, a practice often adopted by Iranian clerics in the years following the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Speaking alternately in Arabic and Persian, Khamenei eulogised Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut on Sept 27, and said the focus of the U.S. and its allies was to preserve the security of Israel as a cover for seizing the region’s resources and exporting them to the west.
“Our resistant people in Lebanon and Palestine, all these testimonies and spilled blood will not shake your will, but rather strengthen your steadfastness”, Khamenei said.
Iran launched a barrage of missiles against Israel on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for the killing of Nasrallah, leader of Iran’s top paramilitary ally in the region, and the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
Iran blames Israel for Haniyeh’s killing. Israeli officials have not claimed responsibility.
“Israel pretends to win through assassinations, destruction, bombing and killing of civilians. This behaviour increased the resistance’s motivation”, Khamenei added. “This reality shows us that every strike launched by any group against Israel is a service to the region and to all humanity.”
Khamenei said Iran’s attack on Israel on Tuesday was “legal and legitimate” and was the minimum punishment for what he called Israel’s crimes.
Khamenei told the large crowd that Iran will not “procrastinate nor act hastily to carry out its duty” in confronting Israel, adding that the missile attack on Israel was “legal and legitimate.”
(Reporting by Dubai newsroom and Jana Choukeir; Editing by Alex Richardson and Sharon Singleton, William Maclean)
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