Iran’s Ali Khamenei vows Hezbollah and Hamas will not back down

In rare public address, supreme leader defends missile attack on Israel and makes appeal for Muslim unity

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has vowed that Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza will emerge with new leaders and will not back down, after a wave of Israeli strikes that have killed the groups’ senior figures.

In a sermon at Friday prayers in Tehran in front of tens of thousands – a rare public address – Khamenei defended the ballistic missile attack on Israel this week that Iran has said was in retaliation for the deaths of the Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah and the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.