‘Israel will not live to see another 15 years’ says Iran’s Supreme Leader
Threat by Mojtaba Khamenei comes amid hopes of breakthrough in talks between the US and Islamic Republic
May 26, 2026 10:55.1/2
Iran’s new supreme leader has declared “Israel will not live to see another 15 years” in a chilling affirmation of the Islamic Republic’s enmity towards the Jewish state.
“Death to Israel” and “Death to America” remain the regime’s slogans, according to the statement from Mojtaba Khamenei aired on Tuesday morning by Iran’s state broadcaster.
The rhetoric echoes the claim a decade by his father Ali Khamenei, the previous Supreme Leader, that Israel would not survive another 25 years.
The comments come as an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander told the JC that the “biggest mistake” of the regime’s enemies was killing the elder Khamenei.
The son is reported to have authorised negotiations with President Trump’s administration, but also appears determined to reassure the regime’s hardline ideological base.
In his statement broadcast today in Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei said that the slogans “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” would “continue to be the slogans of the Islamic Ummah, especially its youth”.
He continued: “The region will not return to past conditions, and Washington will no longer have a safe place to maintain military bases in the region.”
Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen publicly since he took the position of Supreme Leader, replacing his father who was killed in an air strike on Tehran on the opening day of the recent campaign by the US and Israel.
There has been continued speculation over the son’s health, amid claims that he has also been severely injured in the war.
While negotiations are ongoing with America, hardline supporters of the Islamic Republic insist that any agreement with what they describe as the “murderers” of their “martyred Imam” can never truly be accepted by the regime’s ideological base.
“Their biggest mistake was killing our leader,” said Hamidreza AhmadAbadi, an IRGC foot soldier and Basij paramilitary member who now oversees a checkpoint in central Tehran.
“They never imagined we could fight back the way we are now. You failed to overthrow our divine regime. You failed to open the Strait of Hormuz. You failed to disarm our Hezbollah.”
Speaking to the JC from Tehran, AhmadAbadi described the regime’s losses not as a defeat, but as a source of future legitimacy.
https://www.thejc.com/news/world/israel-will-not-live-to-see-another-15-years-says-irans-supreme-leader-oiblmtfk
I don’t care, both should dissappear!