Khamenei Says Gulf's Future is Bright Without US, Mocks Humiliating Defeat
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei stated in a written message that the United States has been defeated in its war against the Islamic Republic. Mojtaba predicted a bright future for the Gulf without the US.
“Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world’s troublemakers in this region, and the humiliating defeat of the United States in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” Khamenei said in a message read on state television, as reported by AFP on Thursday (30/4/2026).
Khamenei’s message, his first public appearance since his appointment on 9 March as Iran’s new Supreme Leader, was delivered during the annual national celebration of Persian Gulf Day in Iran.
Mojtaba Khamenei became Supreme Leader after the US and Israel launched a massive attack campaign against Iran on 28 February, which killed his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei.
Last week, The New York Times quoted several unnamed Iranian officials as saying that the younger Khamenei was “severely injured” in the attack but remained “mentally sharp.”
In his message on Thursday (30/4), he said that US bases in the region “do not even have the capacity to ensure their own security, let alone offer hope of securing their allies.”
He praised what he called Iran’s “new legal and management framework” over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key energy chokepoint, as a way to bring “comfort and progress” to countries in the region.
The strait has been a major flashpoint since the outbreak of the Middle East war, with Iran allowing only a few ships to pass through the waterway.
Last week, a senior parliamentarian said Tehran had received its first revenue from the toll it imposed on the strait.
Khamenei predicted a bright future for the Gulf without the US and condemned what he called “outside parties,” saying that those interfering from thousands of kilometres away “have no place there except at the bottom of its waters.”
He also praised the Iranian people, whom he said “consider all national capacities—identity, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial, and advanced technology from nano and bio to nuclear and missiles—as national capital.”
Earlier on Thursday (30/4), Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said that the US naval blockade imposed in retaliation for Iran’s actions in Hormuz “will certainly fail.”
Pezeshkian added that the action “will not only fail to enhance regional security but is actually a source of tension and disruption to lasting stability in the Persian Gulf.”
Other figures also showed a defiant attitude, with navy commander Shahram Irani hinting that Iran would deploy “in the near future” recently developed naval weaponry.