Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reiterated his support for Palestinian terror groups and militant proxies just days after the country's aerial bombardment aimed at Iran's archenemy Israel.
"Is a Palestinian defending his home a terrorist? Are we, the resistance front, terrorists?" he said.
The comments come amid the ongoing Gaza war, triggered by Iran-backed Hamas when on October 7 thousands of its militants invaded Israel killing 1,200 mostly civilians and kidnapping over 250 more.
Iran has long funded, armed and trained Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups, spearheaded by the supreme leader in his mission to annihilate the Jewish state. Iran has proxies across the region in which the regime invests billions of dollars each year.
In his Wednesday speech, he also defended Iran's backing of Hezbollah, which is currently waging war on Israel's northern front. Over 100,000 Israelis are currently displaced after more than 3,100 projectiles have been fired into Israeli territory since October 7 in support of Hamas in Gaza.
During his speech on Wednesday, Khamenei also responded to the intensified sanctions on Iran from the EU, UK and US in the wake of the aerial bombardment, which saw over 350 drones and missiles fired towards Israel, most of which were intercepted by Israel and a US-led coalition.
"The sanctions will not bring down the Iranian nation because it does not rely on external help," he stated, in spite of the fact that over one third of Iranians now live below the poverty line as the regime funds war over feeding its people.
On Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced that the new sanctions would expand the catalog of prohibited items related to drone and missile production, a move building on measures connected to Iran's role in supplying drones to Russia.
Iran claims the aerial assault was a move of self defense after an alleged Israeli air strike earlier this month on Iran's consulate in Damascus in which one senior Quds Force commander was assassinated along with several other IRGC personnel.