Iran’s Supreme Leader Sayyid Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei said Thursday that the Persian Gulf region’s future would be “without America,” rejecting U.S. military presence and defending Iran’s management of the Strait of Hormuz.
The written message, published by Khamenei.ir, marked National Persian Gulf Day, observed April 30. The statement linked the day to Iran’s expulsion of Portuguese forces and the liberation of the Strait of Hormuz.
Khamenei said Iran’s “legal rules and new management” of the Strait of Hormuz would benefit the comfort and progress of nations in the region. He did not provide a timeline or detailed legal framework for the changes.
He described the Persian Gulf as more than a body of water, calling it part of the region’s identity and civilization and a vital route for the global economy through the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman.
Khamenei said Iran had made major sacrifices for the independence of the Persian Gulf, citing confrontations with Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial powers. He said Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution marked a turning point in reducing foreign influence in the region.
He described the past two months as the largest foreign military mobilization and aggression the region had seen in recent history, and said the United States suffered a “humiliating defeat.” The statement did not specify the events he was referring to.
Khamenei credited Iran’s Army and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval forces with showing resilience during recent confrontations. He said people in the region had seen Iran reject foreign domination through the actions of its naval forces and people in southern Iran.
He called U.S. military presence in Persian Gulf countries the main source of insecurity in the region. He also said U.S. bases could not secure themselves, let alone regional governments that depend on Washington.
Khamenei said Iran and its neighbors around the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman share a common destiny. Foreign powers coming from thousands of kilometers away, he said, had no place in the region “except at the bottom of its waters.”
He said Iran would make the Persian Gulf region secure through its management of the Strait of Hormuz and would end what he called hostile misuse of the waterway.
Khamenei also described Iran’s scientific, industrial and technological capacities as national assets, naming nanotechnology, biotechnology, nuclear capability and missile capability among them.
“Ninety million proud and honorable Iranians inside and outside the country” regard those capacities as part of Iran’s national strength, Khamenei said, adding that they would defend them as they defend the country’s waters, land and airspace.
The region’s future, Khamenei said, would serve the progress, comfort and welfare of its people.
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