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World

Khamenei says US will be forced out of Middle East after 'painful blows'

Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said the United States would be forced to leave the Middle East, in a written statement carried by state television — his first public remarks since the Middle East war began in February.

By Sarah Whitfield · · 1 min read

Mojtaba Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran
Mostafa Tehrani / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Monday that the United States would be forced to leave the Middle East after suffering “painful blows”, according to a written statement carried by Iranian state television.

“Today, having suffered painful blows at the hands of valiant fighters and the guardians of the Strait of Hormuz, they (the enemies) do not venture beyond the Arabian Sea,” Khamenei said in the statement, which did not explicitly mention the United States.

“Whenever they have braved this risk, they have only brought harm upon themselves. It will not be long before the Arabian Sea, too, would rid itself of their presence,” he added, according to AFP.

Khamenei has not been seen in public since the start of the Middle East war in late February, which began with US–Israeli strikes on Iran. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said last week he had recently met the supreme leader twice and that he was “completely healthy”, having recovered from face and leg injuries.

Iran and the United States have been vying for control over the Strait of Hormuz since the war began. Before the fighting, the strategic shipping route carried about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas. Tehran imposed a blockade on Hormuz after the war started, prompting Washington to respond with its own blockade on Iranian ports, AFP reported.

The remarks came as efforts continued to revive talks aimed at ending the fighting, with Bloomberg reporting Iranian officials are privately pessimistic about reaching a deal to end hostilities before the US midterm elections in November.

Sources

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