Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday would be the most intense day of the U.S. air campaign in Iran as a vital oil supply route remained choked off.
Several senior Iranian officials showed up at the government-sponsored rally, marking Quds Day, an annual anti-Israel event that was shaken by explosions from the U.S.-Israeli aerial assault.
Iran’s new supreme leader delivered a forceful message in his first public statement since succeeding his slain father, as the Israeli military bombarded Tehran and the Lebanese capital with strikes.
“We just want to be back in our homes,” said a Lebanese man who, like many others in the latest round of fighting, has to flee.
In an overwhelming vote, the council backed a resolution condemning Iran. A Russian proposal calling for an end to the war that didn’t assign blame or even name the parties, was rejected.
His father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had turned what was traditionally a religious affairs office into a shadowy national security juggernaut.
Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei could prove to be even more radical than his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by the U.S. and Israel at the start of the war.
Opponents of the government, however, worried the new supreme leader, a son of the recently killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would rule with an iron fist like his father.
Iran named Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as his father’s successor. The Pentagon announced the death of a seventh U.S. service member.
Mojtaba Khamenei takes on a role that makes him not only Iran’s spiritual leader but also the highest authority in the land.