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Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei strikes defiant tone in first public statement

Khamenei said Iran would "avenge the blood of [its] martyrs" and suggested opening new fronts in the war

Published March 12, 2026 5:40PM (EDT)

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei gave his first public statement on Thursday, saying that Iran will not capitulate to demands from the United States and Israel.

Khamenei was elevated to his current role after his father was killed in a joint air offensive by the U.S. and Israel. The new supreme leader of Iran called his father’s death a “deep wound” and vowed to avenge the deaths of Iranians who have been killed in ongoing conflict. His defiant statement was read by a newsreader on Iranian state television.

“We will not refrain from avenging the blood of your martyrs,” the statement said.

Khamenei called on other forces in the reason to join Iran’s cause and attack American bases, calling the security promised by American military presence “nothing more than a lie.”

“The countries of the region must clarify their position regarding the aggressors against our beloved homeland and the killers of our people,” Khamenei said.

Khamenei said the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global shipping corridor to Iran’s south, would remain closed for the duration of the war. The closure has led to chaos in the oil market and a worldwide squeeze on oil reserves. Khamenei said Iran’s “lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must definitely continue to be used.” He suggested that Iran might expand the war, opening “other fronts in which the enemy has little experience and would be highly vulnerable.”

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Analysts have been quick to respond to Khamenei’s inaugural statement.

Historian Arash Azizi said the statement was full of “threats” and “bravado.” He said Khamenei’s opening salvo offered “very little hope to Iranians for a better future.”

“It offers Iranians and Iran’s neighbors in the region nothing short of eternal strife,” Azizi told CNN.

National security expert David Pyne called on President Donald Trump to end his “unprovoked war of aggression,” warning that Khamenei could make good on his threats.

“Iran has the ability to use a massive cyber or super EMP attack to shut down most or all… critical infrastructure, kill millions of Americans and maybe even collapse the US into anarchy and civil war,” Pyne wrote on X.

Trump’s “unpredictable” war with Iran has no end in sight

With Iran, confusion is the point

How does Iran pick a new supreme leader? 

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