Pro-government demonstrators wave national flags, flags of Lebanon's Hezbollah, and a placard with Persian script reading, ''The Kohgiluyeh Lur hunter of F-35,'' in front of a portrait of Iran's new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, during the funeral ceremony for Majid Khademi, head of Iran's IRGC Intelligence Organization, in Tehran, Iran, on April 8, 2026. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl / NurPhoto via AFP)
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, said on Tuesday that regional countries would no longer be shields for US bases, in a written statement carried by state television.
“What is certain in this regard is that the hands of time will not turn backwards, and the nations and lands of the region will no longer serve as shields for American bases,” said Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since he took office in March, in a message marking the Eid al-Adha holiday.
He said the United States “in addition to no longer having any safe haven in the region for aggression and the establishment of military bases, is moving further and further away from its former position with each passing day”.
The remarks come as Iran and the United States continued exchanges aimed at reaching a deal to end the war which began on February 28 and spread across the region.
