Tens of thousands of Muslims chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” at the annual Hajj pilgrimage, which the Ayatollah of Iran called “a symbol of spirituality.”

The Arab Ahlul Bayt News Agency reported, “The pilgrims chanted anti-US and anti-Zionist slogans during the ceremony, also attended by the Supreme Leader's representative for Hajj affairs, Hojatoleslam Ali Qazi-Asgar.

“God is the Greatest”, “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” were among slogans chanted by the masses in unison as they gathered in the Desert of Arafat near Mecca, where more than 2 million Muslims have gathered.

Qazi-Asgar read a message from the Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, who told Muslims to engage in "struggle and resistance against the aggressions of the United States and the Zionist regime."

“Today the Zionist regime is no more the undefeatable monster of 30 years ago,” he said. ”The United States and the West are also no more the unquestionable decision-makers of the Middle East that they were two decades ago. Today the arrogant United States, the self-styled commandant of the Islamic region and the real sponsor of the Zionist regime, is bogged down in the quagmire of its own making in Afghanistan.”

He began his speech by saying that “the growing wave of Islamic awakening heralds a glorious future for the Muslim community…The enemy's extensive propaganda campaigns to promote Islamophobia are hasty attempts at sowing discord among Islamic faiths and fueling factional prejudices.”

Khamenei continued, “No virtue is better than rescuing nations from the demonic clutches of hegemonic powers, and no vice is worse than depending on and serving hegemonic powers," referring to the United States.