One of the things that is used in the beginning in this news is absolutely important is the fact that the Iranian supreme leader today gave a sermon and conducted Friday prayers. Led Friday prayers which in itself already shows how important he considers the situation. Of course also how big a blow the assassination of Hassan and the US is to his Iran. While the leader of Hezbollah you were absolutely right we said the last time Ali led Friday prayers was in 2020 which was of course immediately after the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Who was very close to Ayatollah Ali. So that in itself was a big deal. If we can also see that as far as the voting is concerned that more solid compound Becky we have definitely been to that compound many times in the past for Friday prayers. I have never actually seen it as complete as we have seen in some of the pictures today, as far as the main lines are concerned, I think there were really two main things.
What the supreme leader wanted to convey. He was calling for unity among Muslim nations in the fight against the aggressor, which of course can only mean the United States and Israel, first and foremost I want to hear what he said about the relationship between Iran Lebanon and the Palestinians that we are concerned with and there is harm in tearing them apart, if that is the case then what I am saying is that the enemy of the Iranian nation is the enemy of the Palestinian nation, also the enemy of the Lebanese nation. He said that this government is a big enemy of the nation of Iran, and is also hostile to the nation of Egypt.The enemy of the Syrian nation. The enemy of the Yemeni nation. The enemy is one, the methods of the enemy are different in different countries. The United States is calling for the nation of the region to be clearly united against Israel and Israel’s supporters the United States. The second big message that I think we heard from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was that he praised the missile attacks that the Iranians carried out earlier.
So the Israeli region calls them legitimate, but also said that Iran’s attacks will be even heavier if Israel decides to retaliate. Clearly right now the Islamic Republic of Iran is bracing for a potential major attack, one of the things that we have to keep in mind as well. That’s a huge one I think is really important that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard with the Islamic Revolution or four it’s the aerospace fourth that has launched the missile attack. That’s the one that’s also responsible for air defense in Iran. Becky it pulls these threads together my next guest Middle East scholar Valley NASA right in the Foreign Policy magazine quotes technology is for leaders to believe that Washington will deter Israel to prevent regional.
Conflict more Valley NASA joins me now. Valley Let’s just try to figure out what you wrote, why you think Iran believes this. Is it a safe bet on Iran’s part. That Washington will deter Israel at this time. What is Iran on the stand for as many American and many other leaders in the region say the United States does not want a war in the Middle East. He’s trying to move away from military entanglements was starting in matinees that means you believe that unlike Israel which is seeking a military solution to the crisis and the United States wants to. Second because when Iran and Israel exchanged missiles in April and then when Israel killed the leader of Hamas, both times the United States lobbied intensely with Iran. It would either not react at all in the case of Haani or at least serve two temporary terms as he did in April, so at least given that record that the numbers of the past months every time when looking forward.