Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei resurfaced online Thursday with a defiant message aimed at the United States, even as questions swirl about his health and hold on power, including reports he is awaiting a prosthetic leg.
In a Persian Gulf Day statement posted online, Khamenei signaled no retreat on Iran’s core military programs while President Donald Trump pushes for renewed talks and U.S. officials keep pressure on Tehran over the Strait of Hormuz.
Khamenei vowed Iran would protect its “nuclear and missile capabilities” and went further, saying the only place for the American military in the Persian Gulf is “at the bottom of its waters.”
“By God’s help and power, the bright future of the Persian Gulf region will be a future without America, one serving the progress, comfort and prosperity of its people,” a translation of the statement read.
“We and our neighbors across the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman share a common destiny. Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometers away to act with greed and malice there have no place in it, except at the bottom of its waters.”
The remarks come as Washington keeps its focus on the waterway and Iran’s ability to move oil and materiel through the region. U.S. officials have argued Tehran has tried to use shipping lanes as leverage while insisting negotiations cannot proceed without a clearer Iranian position.
A new chapter for the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz is unfolding.
— Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei (@MKhamenei_ir) April 30, 2026
Mojtaba Khamenei’s statement leaned into that fight, framing the U.S. as an outside power with no legitimate role in the Gulf and portraying Iran as the rightful enforcer of regional order.
“Two months after the world’s biggest military campaign and aggression in the region and America’s shameful failure in its plan, a new chapter is dawning in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” the statement read.
In the same message, Khamenei cast Iran’s scientific and defense programs as national “capital,” and warned they will be protected as fiercely as the nation’s borders.
“Ninety million brave and honorable Iranian compatriots … consider all the capacities of identity, spirituality, humanity, science, industry and basic and new technologies, from nano and bio to nuclear and missile, as their national capital and will guard them like water, land and air borders.”
He also claimed Iran will use its role in the Strait of Hormuz to clamp down on what he described as hostile activity.
“With practical gratitude for the blessing of implementing management of the Strait of Hormuz, Islamic Iran will secure the Persian Gulf region and eliminate the hostile enemy’s abuses of this waterway.”
The statement landed as U.S. defense leaders prepare for another round of scrutiny on Capitol Hill over the Iran conflict, the cost of the broader operation, and next steps if diplomacy continues to stall.
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