Iran's Ayatollah Condemns 'Evil Nature of Western Civilizations' to Mark End of Ramadan

The “supreme leader” of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ranted against the “evil nature” of the West in a speech on Wednesday and declared Israel “must be punished and will be punished” for an airstrike that eliminated one of Tehran’s most influential terrorist operatives.

Khamenei spoke at a religious event marking Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that formally closes the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The “supreme leader” accused “Western governments” of supporting Israel in “kill[ing] children in their mothers’ arms and patients in hospital,” decrying America and Britain specifically for being allegedly “arrogant and cruel.”

Khamenei notably omitted in his rantings against Israel the events that prompted the current self-defense operations by Jerusalem: the October 7 terrorist invasion of Israel by Iranian proxy terrorist organization Hamas, in which terrorists slaughtered entire families in their homes, brutally massacred children as young as infants, and engaged in widespread acts of gang rape and other torture.

The October 7 attacks resulted in an estimated 1,200 deaths and the abduction of about 250 people, about 130 of which remain in jihadist captivity.

The lack of condemnation for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) actions to neutralize Hamas in its stronghold of Gaza “exposed the evil nature of Western civilizations,” Khamenei declared, according to Iran’s state-run PressTV propaganda outlet.

“During the last six months in Gaza, the Western governments, themselves, put on display this evil nature before the eyes of the world,” he proclaimed. “They killed children in their mothers’ arms and patients in hospitals. Their strength does not match that of the resistance fighters, so they claim the lives of old men, families, children and women, and killed more than thirty thousand innocent people.”

The “thirty thousand innocent people” claim is an unverified statistic from Hamas’s propaganda office.

“They should have prevented the crimes of the regime in this disaster. But the Western governments did not fulfill their duty. Some spoke in support of the people [in Gaza], but in practice they not only failed to prevent but also contributed to [the war],” the “supreme leader” railed, “especially the arrogant and cruel governments of the US and UK.”

Khemenei also dedicated much of his commentary on an airstrike targeting an Iranian diplomatic outpost in Damascus that eliminated several senior members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization and formal wing of the Iranian armed forces. The strike, conducted on April 1, killed the top commander of the IRGC Quds Force, its foreign terror arm, in Syria, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, and deputy Mohammad Haj Rahimi, among others. Reports following the strike suggested that Zahedi was meeting with members of an Iranian proxy terrorist organization, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, at the time of the strike. Israel has not formally taken responsibility for the action but is widely believed to have conducted it.

Khamenei declared the strike a “mistake” and promised revenge.

“The evil Zionist regime [Israel] committed another mistake … and that was the attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria,” Khamenei said. “The consulate and diplomatic missions in any country are considered to be the territory of that country. When they attack our consulate, it means they have attacked our soil.”

The “supreme leader” had made similar remarks in the immediate aftermath of the airstrike, but Tehran has yet to act on the threats.

“The evil regime will be punished by our brave men. We will make them regret this crime and other ones, by God’s will,” Khamenei proclaimed on April 2. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi similarly condemned what he called “indiscriminate assassinations” and top diplomat Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian vowed revenge not just on Israel, but the United States “as the sponsor of the Zionist regime.”

Khamenei’s Eid remarks followed the publication of a belligerent interview with a top Iranian naval officer, IRGC Navy Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, in the pro-Hezbollah outlet al-Mayadeen on Tuesday in which Tangsiri called for the creation of an international Muslim army to destroy Israel.

“The solution to removing the corrupt and criminal parasite is the unification of all Muslim nations and their armies. If we were united, we could bring an end to it,” Tangsiri proclaimed.

Tangsiri also promised retaliation for the Damascus airstrike, insulting Christians in his remarks.

“We do not act impulsively or hastily. We are not the kind of people who turn the other cheek after being hit. At the appropriate time, the relevant officials will deliver a strong blow, God willing,” PressTV quoted Tangsiri as saying.

The admiral added threats not just to Western powers, but Middle East nations that have pursued peace with Israel, most prominently the United Arab Emirates. The UAE was one of several nations who joined the Abraham Accords, an initiative begun under former President Donald Trump to integrate Israel and improve its ties with its Muslim neighbors. Abu Dhabi opened an embassy in Tel Aviv in 2021 and has since worked to expand trade and cultural ties with Israel. The Emirati government explicitly condemned the October 7 terror siege and has muted condemnation of Israel’s response.

Tangsiri called the UAE’s friendly relations with Israel a threat to Iran.

“The Zionists’ presence in the UAE is a threat to us, and the threat in this case is not verbal, [but] rather practical,” Tangsiri declared, claiming that the two countries are working on “military projects.”

“The Zionists are dropping bombs on Muslims [in Gaza] with warplanes whose fuel is supplied by those very same Islamic countries,” he lamented.

Israel has responded to Iran’s repeated threats to attack its territory in response to the Damascus strike by warning that Israel would attack Iran directly, not its proxy terror arms, if attacked.

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