Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei accuses the USA and Israel of trying to bring Iran to its knees, compensating for military violations through hostile actions.

The supreme Iranian leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, accused the United States and Israel on Thursday of trying to undermine the Iranian nation through dissent and destruction, following recent armed confrontations, the most severe since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8. In a written statement broadcast by Iranian state television, Khamenei emphasized that the enemies' plan is to compensate for military defeats through hostile actions.

On the occasion of the marking of the establishment of the Iranian Parliament, he called for national unity and cohesion. Khamenei, at the age of 56, took over leadership after the assassination of his father, Ali Khamenei, during the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on February 28.

He was also injured in those attacks and has not appeared in public since. The U.S. Secretary of Defense stated that he would likely have been disfigured.