Khamenei: 'Great Satan' US can no longer maintain 'domineering' regional presence

Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei stated on Saturday that the United States can no longer maintain a "trouble-free, domineering presence" in the Middle East. In a message to the Iraqi people, Khamenei, who succeeded his slain father, claimed that "The Great Satan—the criminal US—has now realized that the continuation of its trouble-free, domineering presence in the region is nothing but a naive fantacy." He also asserted that the millions of mourners at his father's funeral in Iran and Iraq marked "a new chapter of awakening and active engagement to alter the equations that had been designed by the Arrogant Powers." Khamenei, who was injured in the airstrike that killed his father on February 28, has not appeared publicly since the war began but vowed in a July 11 statement to avenge his father's death, stating, "These criminals, whose names are fully documented from the highest to the lowest ranks, will carry their dream of a peaceful death in bed to the grave."