"Enemy Defeated": Iran Supreme Leader's Defiant Message On Persian New Year

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Friday said Iran was defeating the enemies of the Islamic republic and had struck a "dizzying blow" in the war against the US and Israel, in a defiant written message to the nation for the Persian New Year, Nowruz.

The long statement, published on his Telegram channel and official Iranian media, was the latest such message from Khamenei after he succeeded his father Ali Khamenei who was killed in an airstrike at the start of the war on February 28.

But almost two weeks into his tenure, the younger Khamenei has yet to issue a video or even audio message to Iranians, with state media and officials alluding to him being wounded in the strike that killed his father.

"At the moment, due to the particular unity that has been created between you our compatriots -- despite all the differences in religious, intellectual, cultural and political origins -- the enemy has been defeated," said Khamenei.

He described the current war against Israel and the United States as the third war that the Islamic republic has experienced over the last 12 months, after the June 2025 12-day conflict with Israel but also nationwide protests at the start of this year which Tehran blamed on Israel and the US.

By showing unity and resolve, Iranians had "dealt him (the enemy) a dizzying blow so that he now starts uttering contradictory words and nonsense," Khamenei said in the message which was also read out on Iranian state television.

He said Israel and the United States had the "illusion" that if Ali Khamenei and other military leaders were killed, they would create "fear and despair" and "realise the dream of dominating Iran and then dividing it".

Ali Khamenei and over a dozen top security and other officials have been killed in the conflict so far.

Mojtaba Khamenei also said Iran and its allied forces in the region were "in no way" behind attacks on Oman and Turkey during the war, instead blaming "deception by the Zionist enemy" in reference to Israel.

He accused Israel, which Iran does not recognise, of "using false-flag tactics to create division between the Islamic Republic and its neighbours" and warned "such actions may also occur in other countries".

Khamenei described the 12-day war as a "serious miscalculation" on the part of Israel, which he said had wanted to "overthrow the Islamic system" in Iran.

Mojtaba Khamenei predicted that Iranian's "unity will certainly become stronger and more solid, and your enemies will become humble and less powerful" in the coming year.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)