Tehran Provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami issued a stark warning during this week’s Friday sermon, saying that if Israel violates the current ceasefire, “Tel Aviv will become a ghost town.”
Khatami accused Israel of pursuing Iran’s destruction and claimed that recent events have demonstrated Iran’s military strength. He referenced Iran’s retaliatory missile strikes on the U.S. Al-Udeid airbase in Qatar as a major show of power, calling it the first such act since World War II, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
“The Zionist regime is a cancerous tumor that must be removed,” he said, urging Muslim countries to resist Israel’s expansion, warning that they could face similar consequences as Syria.
He also claimed that the U.S. intervened directly in the recent conflict to defend Israel, reaffirming Iran’s long-standing anti-American sentiment. “The slogan ‘Death to America’ still resonates,” Khatami stated, accusing Washington of aggression against 25 nations in recent decades.
According to Iranian sources, the conflict escalated on June 13, when Israel allegedly launched strikes on Iran’s military, nuclear, and civilian infrastructure. U.S. forces later targeted three nuclear sites in Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan on June 22.
Iran responded with large-scale missile attacks against Israel and the Al-Udeid base in Qatar as part of “Operation True Promise III.”
A ceasefire that began on June 24 is currently in effect.