Iran’s president and overseas minister have been among the many senior officers who joined 1000’s of individuals marching via downtown Tehran on Friday, exhibiting defiance as U.S.-Israeli airstrikes continued, sending up plumes of smoke not removed from a crowd in keeping with 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 big rally in Tehran, however the high officers exhibiting 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 throughout the rally, and there have been rumors this week that he could have been critically wounded — presumably 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 the moment is Quds Day in Iran, and regardless of the brutal assaults carried out in the present day by the Zionist regime and america, we’re witnessing a large turnout — hundreds of 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 folks in help of the Islamic Republic, the reason for Jerusalem, Palestine, and all of the ideas we now have upheld over time which have introduced us up to now. God prepared, we are going to proceed with the identical power and energy, and we are going to compel our enemies to acknowledge the power of the Iranian folks.”
President Masoud Pezeshkian was additionally seen in movies strolling via 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 folks throughout 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 “need to stand with the folks, beside the folks, 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 persons are not intimidated by these enemy assaults. They take precautions, however beneath this rain and beneath these missile bombardments, they are going to on no account retreat from resistance.”
