[0:00]On Iranian state media, a presenter read a new statement from Iran's new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and Reuters is reporting a few highlights from those remarks, saying that the Supreme Leader said in the statement, "We believe in friendship with neighbors and only target the bases, and we will inevitably continue."
[0:18]That is not true. We know that many Gulf countries have had their residential and civilian infrastructure attacked. Now, Iran's new Supreme Leader in this statement goes on to say, "All US bases should immediately be closed in the region, and those bases will be attacked." He also, uh, says in the statement, again, that was presented on state media. He does not appear in the statement that he calls on unity among the people of Iran and participation in Quds Day. Now, Quds is the Arabic word for Jerusalem, and this day normally falls on the last Friday of Ramadan. And so, if my math is correct here, that would be March 20th of this year, the last Friday of Ramadan, when traditionally we have seen Iranian proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah launch attacks and also large demonstrations in the region. And so, this is certainly something to look out for in the days ahead. But again, this is the first statement that we are receiving from Iran's new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. He speaks about the attacks on Gulf countries, also says that he will target US bases in the region, and then also talks about the Strait of Hormuz.
