Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday penned a letter lauding pro-Palestinian Arab protesters on campuses across the US, telling them they are “standing on the right side” of history and are a branch of the “Resistance Front” against Israel, The Hill reports.
Khamenei praised the students for their “courageous defense of the Palestinian people.”
“You have now formed a branch of the Resistance Front and have begun an honorable struggle in the face of your government’s ruthless pressure — a government which openly supports the usurper and brutal Zionist regime,” Khamenei said in the letter, according to The Hill.
He called Israel an “apartheid Zionist regime” and accused it of committing “genocide” in Gaza.
Pro-Palestinian Arab encampents have sprung at campuses across the US in recent weeks, as protests against the war in Gaza intensify.
Some of the anti-Israel encampments at universities have been taken down by police officers, while others have been cleared voluntarily following agreements with the administrations.
Khamenei often threatens Israel, to which he refers as a “terrorist state”. Since the start of the war in Gaza, the Iranian Supreme Leader has posted to X at least four times in Hebrew, threatening Israel.
Khamenei posted in Hebrew in April, after an air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus which killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals, and which was blamed on Israel.
“With God's help we will make the Zionists regret their crime of aggression against the Iranian consulate in Damascus,” he wrote at the time.
Later, after Iran retaliated for the strike in Damascus by launching hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel, Khamenei again posted in Hebrew.
“Holy Al-Quds will be in the hands of the Muslims, and the Muslim world will celebrate the liberation of Palestine,” he wrote in Hebrew, alongside footage of Iranian missiles being intercepted over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir responded, "Are you talking about the same holy Al-Quds that you wanted to shell yesterday and the Israeli defense prevented you from doing so?"