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Iran’s Khamenei says ‘bitter’ Ukrainian plane crash should not overshadow Soleimani’s killing
- ‘Our enemies were as happy about the plane crash as we were sad,’ the supreme leader said during the Friday sermon
- Praising the slain general, Khamenei said his actions beyond Iran’s borders were in the service of the ‘security’ of the nation
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Iran’s supreme leader called the accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner a “bitter” tragedy on Friday but said it should not overshadow the “sacrifice” of a top commander killed in a US drone strike.
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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was giving the sermon at the main weekly Muslim prayers in Tehran, after a traumatic month in which the country had appeared on the brink of war with the US and shot down the Ukrainian jet by mistake with the loss of all 176 people on board.
“The plane crash was a bitter accident, it burned through our heart,” Khamenei said in an address punctuated by cries of “Death to America” from the crowd.
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“But some tried to … portray it in a way to forget the great martyrdom and sacrifice” of Major General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The last time Khamenei led Friday prayers at Tehran’s Mosalla mosque was in February 2012, on the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution and at a time of crisis over the Iran nuclear issue.
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