The Related Press
Iran’ s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday made his first public look for the reason that 12-day warfare between Israel and Iran started, attending a mourning ceremony on the eve of Ashoura.
Khamenei’s absence throughout the warfare instructed heavy safety for the Iranian chief, who has last say on all state issues. State TV in Iran confirmed him waving and nodding to the chanting crowd, which rose to its ft as he entered and sat at a mosque subsequent to his workplace and residence within the capital, Tehran.
There was no rapid report on any public assertion made. Iranian officers such because the Parliament speaker had been current. Such occasions are at all times held beneath heavy safety.
The 86-year-old Khamenei had spent the warfare in a bunker as threats to his life escalated.
After the U.S. inserted itself into the warfare by bombing three key nuclear websites in Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump despatched warnings through social media to Khamenei that the U.S. knew the place he was however had no plans to kill him, “at the least for now.”
On June 26, shortly after a ceasefire started, Khamenei made his first public assertion in days, saying in a prerecorded assertion that Tehran had delivered a “slap to America’s face” by placing a U.S. air base in Qatar, and warning in opposition to additional assaults by the U.S. or Israel on Iran.
Trump replied, in remarks to reporters and on social media: “Look, you’re a person of nice religion. A person who’s extremely revered in his nation. You need to inform the reality. You bought beat to hell.”
Iran has acknowledged the deaths of greater than 900 folks within the warfare, in addition to 1000’s of injured. It additionally has confirmed severe harm to its nuclear services, and has denied entry to them for inspectors with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Iran’s president on Wednesday ordered the nation to droop its cooperation with the watchdog, the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company, additional limiting inspectors’ skill to trace a program that had been enriching uranium to close weapons-grade ranges. Israel launched the warfare fearing that Iran was making an attempt to develop atomic weapons.
It stays unclear simply how badly broken the nuclear services are, whether or not any enriched uranium or centrifuges had been moved earlier than the assaults, and whether or not Tehran nonetheless could be prepared to proceed negotiations with the USA over its nuclear program.
Israel additionally focused protection techniques, high-ranking navy officers and atomic scientists. In retaliation, Iran fired greater than 550 ballistic missiles at Israel, most of them intercepted, killing 28 folks and inflicting harm in lots of areas.
Ceremony commemorates a dying that brought on rift in Islam
The ceremony that Khamenei hosted Saturday was a remembrance of the seventh century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein.
Shiites symbolize over 10% of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims, they usually view Hussein because the rightful successor to the Prophet Muhammad. Hussein’s dying in battle by the hands of Sunnis at Karbala, south of Baghdad, created a rift in Islam and continues to play a key position in shaping Shiite identification.
In predominantly Shiite Iran, crimson flags represented Hussein’s blood and black funeral tents and garments represented mourning. Processions of chest-beating and self-flagellating males demonstrated fervor. Some sprayed water over the mourners within the intense warmth.
Reviews of issues accessing the web
NetBlocks, a world web monitor, reported late Saturday on X that there was a “main disruption to web connectivity” in Iran. It stated the disruption corroborated widespread consumer stories of issues accessing the web. The event comes simply weeks after authorities shut down telecoms throughout the warfare.
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Related Press author Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed.
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