Iran’s new tough leader vows to step up attacks

DUBAI: United Arab Emirates (AP): Iran’s new supreme leader released his first statement since succeeding his late father, saying Thursday that Iran would keep up its attacks on its Gulf Arab neighbors and use the effective closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz as leverage against the United States and Israel.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, who Israel suspects was wounded in the opening salvo of the war, did not appear on camera, and his statement was read by a state TV news anchor. The statement included a vow to avenge those killed in the war, including in a strike on a school that killed over 165 people.

The statement signaled a willingness to continue the war that has disrupted global energy supplies, international travel and the relative safety enjoyed by the Gulf Arab states, and which has also exacted a heavy toll on Iran’s leadership, military and ballistic missile program. Khamenei has not been seen in public since the start of the war.

Iran’s unrelenting attacks on shipping traffic and energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf had earlier pushed oil back above $100 a barrel, as American and Israeli strikes pounded the Islamic Republic with no sign of an end to the war in sight.