00:00As is customary on Nowruz, the Persian New Year, Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei,
00:06has issued a message in which he declared that Iran has dealt its enemies a dizzying blow in its war
00:13with the US and Israel.
00:14He also said that Iran was not behind recent attacks on Oman and Turkey, that message airing on Iranian state
00:22television.
00:23Well, for more, I'm joined now in the studio by our international affairs editor, Andrew Hillier.
00:26Hi, Andrew. Just would you talk us through some of the main takeaways that came out of Khamenei's statement just
00:33about an hour ago?
00:34Yeah, that's right. So this was only his second address to the nation since he was chosen as supreme leader.
00:41This is a written statement attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei, read by a presenter on state television.
00:48There was no footage of Mojtaba Khamenei. Of course, we haven't seen footage of Khamenei since the start of the
00:55war.
00:55It was longer and more detailed than the first message that had been also read out on state television.
01:02And he really focused on a few key points that I'll just go over now.
01:06So for a start, he called the Persian New Year the year of a resistance economy under national unity and
01:12national security.
01:13And those themes there, he repeated them several times throughout this statement.
01:18So the themes of resistance, national unity, national security.
01:22That's the message he was really trying to get across to Iranians.
01:26He said that national unity was an essential precondition to continue resistance.
01:31And also something interesting, Haxi, is that he really tried to focus on people as well.
01:36He said, I'm listening to you, to your conversations in taxis.
01:40I'm listening to your conversations in public squares.
01:43Essentially, he's trying to build these ties with the public because he is also an invisible figure at this stage.
01:52So what I think he's trying to do here is use this speech to really establish his image amongst Iranian
01:59people.
01:59That's why this was a message of reassurance that the leader is present, while also drawing those broad outlines that
02:08I mentioned to try and encourage Iranians to resist.
02:12Now, in this message, Khamenei also reached out to a number of Iran's neighbours.
02:16What's he trying to do here?
02:18Yeah, well, that was another key theme of his statement, reaching out to Iran's neighbours.
02:24And, of course, this has to be placed, and I'll come back to this, in the context of attacks on
02:30Gulf countries.
02:31So one of the first things he did was that he denied that Iran had been behind attacks in Turkey
02:37and Oman.
02:38He also called for greater ties with neighbours such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.
02:42And then kind of really emphasised things he said that Iran had in common with its neighbours, like Islam and
02:49the same strategic interests.
02:52He said that he firmly believed in strengthening ties with neighbouring countries, also arguing that Iran's enemies were trying to
02:58drive a wedge between Tehran and its neighbours.
03:03And again, as I said before, this really does have to be placed in the wider context of Iran's ongoing
03:08attacks against its neighbours, in particular against its Gulf, against the Gulf countries.
03:13We saw more attacks today, and these are attacks that Tehran has stepped up, of course, and particularly after the
03:20South Paa's offshore natural gas field was attacked on Wednesday.
03:26So this statement, for those Gulf countries at least, is unlikely to reassure them as long as those attacks continue.
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