Iran’s new supreme leader has declared “Israel will not live to see another 15 years” in a chilling affirmation of the Islamic Republic’s enmity towards the Jewish state.
“Death to Israel” and “Death to America” remain the regime’s slogans, according to the statement from Mojtaba Khamenei aired on Tuesday morning by Iran’s state broadcaster.
The rhetoric echoes the claim a decade by his father Ali Khamenei, the previous Supreme Leader, that Israel would not survive another 25 years.
The comments come as an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander told the JC that the “biggest mistake” of the regime’s enemies was killing the elder Khamenei.
The son is reported to have authorised negotiations with President Trump’s administration, but also appears determined to reassure the regime’s hardline ideological base.
In his statement broadcast today in Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei said that the slogans “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” would “continue to be the slogans of the Islamic Ummah, especially its youth”.
He continued: “The region will not return to past conditions, and Washington will no longer have a safe place to maintain military bases in the region.”
Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen publicly since he took the position of Supreme Leader, replacing his father who was killed in an air strike on Tehran on the opening day of the recent campaign by the US and Israel.
There has been continued speculation over the son’s health, amid claims that he has also been severely injured in the war.
While negotiations are ongoing with America, hardline supporters of the Islamic Republic insist that any agreement with what they describe as the “murderers” of their “martyred Imam” can never truly be accepted by the regime’s ideological base.
“Their biggest mistake was killing our leader,” said Hamidreza AhmadAbadi, an IRGC foot soldier and Basij paramilitary member who now oversees a checkpoint in central Tehran.
“They never imagined we could fight back the way we are now. You failed to overthrow our divine regime. You failed to open the Strait of Hormuz. You failed to disarm our Hezbollah.”
Speaking to the JC from Tehran, AhmadAbadi described the regime’s losses not as a defeat, but as a source of future legitimacy.
“The only real loss was the martyrdom of our Imam,” he said. “That is bad for us, but good for him. He always wanted to become a martyr.”
“In the long run, it may even strengthen us,” he added. “We can always remind pro deal politicians in Iran who was killed, and by whom.”
The question now is how the regime’s ideological core, including the more than 120,000 members of the IRGC, would react to any future agreement with Washington.
“We will respect the negotiations,” AhmadAbadi said.
Then, with a change tone, he added: “But the sense of betrayal will never heal. Remember what we are capable of doing inside the country, in the Strait of Hormuz, and across the world.”
After a pause, he insisted: “Of course, we will respect the deal.”
But Iranian opponents of the regime feel abandoned amid the current negotiations, after what they see as “promises” by Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to help unseat the regime, which anti-regime protestor Iman now believes to be “bluffs”.
Explaining he felt deeply betrayed, Iman said: “Either our movement was used by the West to achieve its own interests, or we have to accept that the regime won the war.”
Some dissidents fear that a deal could hand the Islamic Republic the breathing space it needs to crush what remains of Iran’s civil society.
“So if the regime survives this, they will come after all of us,” said a lawyer based in Tehran who has chosen to remain anonymous.
She believes any agreement between Washington and Tehran would allow the authorities to intensify their crackdown on Iran’s already battered opposition movement.
She said: “So far, what Trump calls support has brought us nothing except more suffering. The regime uses his statements against us, calling us American and Israeli spies and claiming our movement is fabricated and funded by the West.”
She pointed to the total internet shutdown imposed during the conflict, mass arrests, the growing militarisation of the country, and a wave of executions. According to Iranian state media, 29 people have reportedly been executed since the war began in February. Authorities accused them of spying for Israel or participating in anti-regime protests “orchestrated at the behest of Israel and the United States”.
“When was the last time you heard Benjamin Netanyahu or Donald Trump speak about the Iranian people?” she asked. “All we hear now is nuclear negotiations, missiles, and the Strait of Hormuz. How are we supposed to feel? Grateful?”
Her hope is that the negotiations collapse: “I hope this is not the end of the game. I hope they do not sign a deal,” she said. “How can they trust a regime capable of killing thousands of its own citizens?”
More than 42,000 demonstrators were reportedly killed by Iranian authorities during protests in January.
Senior American officials have repeatedly stressed that Washington’s objectives remained limited to security concerns and preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
“We’re not going to entangle this into some nation building project,” Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth said during a Pentagon briefing in May.
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