Supreme leader claims Trump is a clown who will backstab Iran
● Ayatollah says retaliation for general’s killing wasablowtous
Iran’s supreme leader said President Donald Trump is a “clown” who only pretends to support the Iranian people, as he addressed Friday prayers in Tehran for the first time since 2012.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Mr Trump will “push a poisonous dagger” into the nation’s back.
He said the outpouring of grief at the funeral for Iran’s top general, who was killed in a US airstrike earlier this month, shows that Iranians support the Islamic Republic, and described Iran’s retaliatory missile attack on US troops in Iraq earlier this month was a “blow to America’s image” as a superpower.
The cleric said America was “cowardly” in its killing of the most effective commander in the fight against the Islamic
State group when it targeted General Qassem Soleimani in a US airstrike in Baghdad.
The comments came as US defense Secretary Mark Esper said he had seen no hard evidence that four American embassies had been under possible threat when President Trump authorized the targeting of Iran’s top commander, raising questions about the scale of the threat used to justify the drone strike.
In response to the strike, Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting US troops in Iraq, mistakenly shooting down a Ukrainian jetliner shortly after it took off from Tehran’s international airport, killing all 176 passengers on board.
Authorities concealed their role in the tragedy for three days, initially blaming the crash on a technical problem. Their admission of responsibility triggered days of street protests, which security forces dispersed with live ammunition and tear gas.
Esper said street protests in Tehran show the Iranian people are hungry for a more accountable government.
“You can see the Iranian people are standing up and asserting their rights, their aspirations for a better government a different regime,” Esper said. He appeared on two Sunday news shows while national security adviser, Robert O’brien, was interviewed on three others - pressing the White House’s campaign to bring “maximum pressure” on Tehran to change its behavior.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has held the country’s top office since 1989 and has the final say on all major decisions.
The 80-year-old leader openly wept at the funeral of Gen Soleimani and vowed “harsh retaliation” against the United States.
Tensions between Iran and the United States have steadily escalated since President Trump withdrew the US from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which had imposed restrictions on its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.
The White House has since imposed crippling sanctions on Iran, including its vital oil and gas industry, pushing the country into an economic crisis that has ignited several waves of sporadic, leaderless protests.
Mr Trump has openly encouraged the protesters, even tweeting in Farsi.
After Mr Soleimani was killed in a US airstrike in Baghdad, Iran announced it would no longer be bound by the limitations in the nuclear agreement.
Mr Khamenei was always sceptical of the nuclear agreement, arguing that the United States could not be trusted. But he allowed President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, to conclude the agreement withthenuspresidentbarack Obama.
Mr Khamenei last delivered a Friday sermon in February 2012, when he called Israel a “cancerous tumour” and vowed to support anyone confronting it.
He also warned against any US strikes on Iran over its nuclear programme, saying the US would be damaged “10 times over”.