Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has remained out of the public’s sight since assuming the post, amid reports that he was badly wounded.
Israel said on Tuesday that it had killed two more high-ranking figures, including the man who had essentially been running Iran for weeks.
The weeklong fight over Iran’s next leader pitted the Revolutionary Guards against moderates. The generals won, but only over spirited resistance.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was attacked overnight. Israeli strikes continued to hit the capitals of Iran and Lebanon, as Iran refused to relinquish control over a vital oil route.
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.
Mojtaba Khamenei struck a defiant tone and signaled that Iran would not back down in a war that has spread across the Middle East.
Officials say Mojtaba Khamenei’s legs were hurt, but the circumstances as well as the extent of his injuries were unclear. He has remained out of view since being announced as leader three days ago.
His father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had turned what was traditionally a religious affairs office into a shadowy national security juggernaut.