Iran’s Supreme Leader Declares Beginning of Conflict

Amid the ongoing conflict with Israel, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has declared, “the battle begins.” “In the name of the noble Haidar, the battle begins,” he wrote in a post published in Farsi on his Farsi-language X account on Wednesday. Haidar is a name often used for Ali, whom Shia Muslims regard as the first Imam and the rightful successor to the Prophet Muhammad. Khamenei also posted on his English-language X account: “We must give a strong response to the terrorist Zionist regime. We will show the Zionists no mercy.”