Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, said in an April 30 statement read by a state television anchor, the only place Americans belonged in the Persian Gulf is “at the bottom of its waters” and that a “new chapter” was being written in the region’s history. The statement was delivered on the occasion of “Persian Gulf Day,” which celebrates the history, name, and significance of the Persian Gulf to Iran. The date commemorates the expulsion of the Portuguese from Hormuz in 1622.
“However, the Islamic Revolution in Iran was the true turning point of this resistance in cutting off the hands of the foreign powers from the Persian Gulf region, and today, two months after the largest military campaign and the aggression of the world’s bullies in the region and the shameful failure of America’s plans, a new chapter is being written in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” Khamenei said.
“We share the same fate with our neighbors in the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, and those foreigners who greedily commit evil deeds from thousands of kilometers away have no place in the Persian Gulf except at the bottom of its waters,” he said further.
But it isn’t just the waters of the Persian Gulf that Iran is defending but also the development of its people. “Today, the miraculous awakening of the Iranian nation is not limited to the tens of millions of lives who are willing to sacrifice themselves in the fight against Zionism and America as part of the united ranks of the Islamic Ummah,” Khamenei said. “More than 90 million zealous and noble Iranians inside and outside the country have considered all spiritual, human, scientific, industrial, basic and advanced technologies of nanobiota, nuclear, and missile technology as their national rights and will guard them just like they guard our land, air, and sea.”
