Iran’s new supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei vows to continue attacks on Gulf Arab countries

 Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, vowed to keep up attacks on Gulf Arab countries and use the effective closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz as leverage against the United States and Israel. It was his first public statement since being chosen to succeed his father, who was killed in an Israeli strike.

Mojtaba Khamenei, who Israel suspects was wounded in the opening salvo of the war, has not appeared in public since then. In the statement read by a state TV news anchor, he vowed to avenge those killed in the war. The statement signalled a willingness to continue the war that has disrupted global energy supplies, international travel and the relative safety enjoyed by the Gulf Arab states.