For the first time since 2012, Iran's supreme leader delivered a sermon on Friday's prayers in Tehran
Ali Khamenei // Photo: IP
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered a sermon this morning during the Friday prayers in Tehran, for the first time in eight years.
The Iranian leader addressed Iran's response to the assassination of Qassem Suleimani, saying: "We slapped the face of the arrogant power, God beside us," Reuters reports. According to him, the Iranian action against US bases in Iraq has shown that the Islamic Republic has divine support.
In his address, Khamenei added that the Revolutionary Guards secure Iran's security and should be considered a "humanitarian organization with human values."
Following the civil protests in Tehran following the collapse of the Ukrainian plane, Khamenei called on the Iranian people to unite. He added that measures must be taken to ensure that events such as the plane crash do not happen again.
Documentation of the damage to the Ukrainian aircraft
According to a report by Reuters, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Musawi said this morning that world countries should refrain from overthrowing the Ukrainian plane in Tehran last week on a political issue.
"We are asking all parties not to turn human issues, especially this tragic accident, into an excuse for political gestures," Musawi said, according to an ISNA news agency report.
In the five countries whose civilians were killed in the plane crash, Tehran said that compensation should be paid to the victims' families, and the world anticipates its response to the incident. The states of Canada, Ukraine, Sweden, Afghanistan and the United Kingdom have said that Iran must conduct "a thorough, independent and transparent international investigation open to the mourning countries."
Musawi said Iran has cooperated "beyond expectations" with the countries whose civilians were killed in the crash, according to ISNA reports.