Khamenei: Iran Will Not Delay Nor Rush to Confront Israel, Resistance Won’t Back Down

This image grab from a handout video provided by Iran Press on October 4, 2024, shows Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivering a rare Friday sermon at a mosque in Tehran. (Photo by IRAN PRESS / AFP)
This image grab from a handout video provided by Iran Press on October 4, 2024, shows Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivering a rare Friday sermon at a mosque in Tehran. (Photo by IRAN PRESS / AFP)
TT

Khamenei: Iran Will Not Delay Nor Rush to Confront Israel, Resistance Won’t Back Down

This image grab from a handout video provided by Iran Press on October 4, 2024, shows Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivering a rare Friday sermon at a mosque in Tehran. (Photo by IRAN PRESS / AFP)
This image grab from a handout video provided by Iran Press on October 4, 2024, shows Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivering a rare Friday sermon at a mosque in Tehran. (Photo by IRAN PRESS / AFP)

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Friday that Iran's recent missile attack on Israel was "legal and legitimate" and was the minimum punishment for Israel's "crimes."

Khamenei told a huge crowd during Friday prayer sermons that Iran will not "procrastinate nor act hastily to carry out its duty" in confronting Israel, adding that the missile attack on Israel was "legal and legitimate."

Iran launched a barrage of missiles against Israel on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last Friday and the assassination of Hamas' chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.

Iran blames Israel for Haniyeh's killing. Israeli officials have not claimed responsibility.

US President Joe Biden said on Thursday Israel's response to Iran’s barrage of missiles could include a strike on Iran's oil facilities.

Khamenei also said on Friday that the US and its allies were preserving the security of Israel to make it an energy exporting gate from the region to the West, but that the resistance in the region would not back down against Israel.

He urged nations from “Afghanistan to Yemen and from Iran to Gaza and Yemen” to be ready to take action against the enemy, and praised those who had died doing so.
“Our resisting people in Lebanon and Palestine, you brave fighters, you loyal and patient people, these martyrdoms and the blood that was shed shouldn’t shake your determination but make you more persistent,” he said.
Khamenei gave half of the speech in Arabic as he addressed his comments to Arab nations.
Khamenei's last appearance at Friday prayers was after the death of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in 2020 in a US drone strike in Baghdad.
A ceremony commemorating Nasrallah's assassination was held before Khamenei’s speech. Most high-ranking Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian and top Revolutionary Guard generals, attended the ceremony.



Pope Urges ‘All People of All Nations’ to Silence Arms and Overcome Divisions in Christmas Address

Pope Francis leads the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas Day blessing from the central balcony of Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican City, 25 December 2024. (EPA)
Pope Francis leads the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas Day blessing from the central balcony of Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican City, 25 December 2024. (EPA)
TT

Pope Urges ‘All People of All Nations’ to Silence Arms and Overcome Divisions in Christmas Address

Pope Francis leads the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas Day blessing from the central balcony of Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican City, 25 December 2024. (EPA)
Pope Francis leads the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas Day blessing from the central balcony of Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican City, 25 December 2024. (EPA)

Pope Francis in his traditional Christmas message on Wednesday urged "all people of all nations" to find courage during this Holy Year "to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions" plaguing the world, from the Middle East to Ukraine, Africa to Asia.

The pontiff's "Urbi et Orbi" — "To the City and the World" — address serves as a summary of the woes facing the world this year. As Christmas coincided with the start of the 2025 Holy Year celebration that he dedicated to hope, Francis called for broad reconciliation, "even (with) our enemies."

"I invite every individual, and all people of all nations ... to become pilgrims of hope, to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions," the pope said from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica to throngs of people below.

He called for arms to be silenced in war-torn Ukraine and in the Middle East, singling out Christian communities in Israel and the Palestinian territories, "particularly in Gaza where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave," as well as Lebanon and Syria "at this most delicate time."

Francis repeated his calls for the release of hostages taken from Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

He cited a deadly outbreak of measles in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the suffering of the people of Myanmar, forced to flee their homes by "the ongoing clash of arms." The pope likewise remembered children suffering from war and hunger, the elderly living in solitude, those fleeing their homelands, who have lost their jobs, and are persecuted for their faith.

Iraqi Christians persist in their faith

Christians in Nineveh Plains attended Christmas Mass on Tuesday at the Mar Georgis church in the center of Telaskaf, Iraq, with security concerns about the future. "We feel that they will pull the rug out from under our feet at any time. Our fate is unknown here," said Bayda Nadhim, a resident of Telaskaf.

Iraq’s Christians, whose presence there goes back nearly to the time of Christ, belong to a number of rites and denominations. They once constituted a sizeable minority in Iraq, estimated at around 1.4 million.

But the community has steadily dwindled since the 2003 US-led invasion and further in 2014 when the ISIS extremist group swept through the area. The exact number of Christians left in Iraq is unclear, but they are thought to number several hundred thousand.

German celebrations muted by market attack

German celebrations were darkened by a car attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday that left five people dead, including a 9-year-old boy, and 200 people injured.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier rewrote his recorded Christmas Day speech to address the attack, saying that "there is grief, pain, horror and incomprehension over what took place in Magdeburg."

He urged Germans to "stand together" and that "hate and violence must not have the last word."

A 50-year-old Saudi doctor who had practiced medicine in Germany since 2006 was arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm. The suspect’s X account describes him as a former Muslim and criticized authorities for failing to combat "the Islamification of Germany" and voiced support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.