Senior Iranian clerics denounced US President Donald Trump in Friday prayer sermons, accusing the United States of aggression and deceit as Tehran’s tone toward Washington hardens following a defiant speech by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Friday prayer leaders are state appointees in Iran's theocracy, and their political speeches reflect the official stance of the ruling clerical establishment.
Ahmad Khatami, the Friday prayer leader in Tehran, said Iran would never yield to what he called US coercion. “Trump says he wants to deal with Iran, but a deal made with force is surrender,” Khatami said during his sermon, according to state media.
He said Iran would “break the horn of this wild bull” through faith and endurance, using the phrase to describe what he called Washington’s policy of pressure.
Referring to the US withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal, he said Washington “tore up the agreement in front of the world” and “cannot be trusted for any negotiation.”
In Qom, Mohammad Saeedi praised Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s recent response to Trump’s remarks about Iran’s nuclear program, saying it “crushed the arrogance of the US president.” Saeedi said the reply showed that Iran would not let “foreigners decide its needs,” according to Mehr news agency.
Khamenei, speaking in Tehran on Monday, had dismissed Trump’s assertion that US air strikes destroyed Iran’s nuclear program.
“The US president proudly says they bombed and destroyed Iran’s nuclear industry. Very well, keep dreaming,” he said. Khamenei added that Washington had no authority over Iran’s nuclear work and accused the United States of backing Israel’s war in Gaza.
“Trump tries to look powerful, but his words only reveal weakness,” Saeedi said. “The world saw that our leader’s wisdom silenced his noise.”
In Ahvaz, Mohammadnabi Mousavi-Fard said the Persian Gulf would turn into “a hell for global arrogance” if the US or its allies threatened Iran. He said Iran’s strength came from its faith and self-reliance.
“Every dollar of non-oil exports builds our national power,” he said, urging officials to focus on production and technology to counter sanctions.
The clerics’ remarks followed comments by national security chief Ali Larijani, who on Thursday likened Trump to Adolf Hitler and mocked his behavior at a US-led Gaza ceasefire summit in Egypt.
Larijani said Trump “spoke only by himself,” showed “disrespect to other leaders,” and turned the event into a “Trump show.”
