Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first message on Thursday, calling for continued military resistance and saying the Strait of Hormuz should remain a tool of pressure, even as questions persist about his health and whereabouts.
The message was not delivered in person. Instead, it was read aloud by a state television anchor while a still photograph of Khamenei was displayed on screen, meaning that nearly two weeks after the conflict began, no video or audio recording of the new leader himself has been released.
Iranian authorities have provided no direct evidence of his condition following reports that he may have been injured during the strikes that killed his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei.
In the written statement attributed to him, Khamenei addressed the war, domestic unity, regional tensions and retaliation against enemies.
War and military pressure
In the message, Khamenei praised Iran’s armed forces and called for continued military resistance against what he described as aggression by the United States and Israel.
“The demand of the masses of the people is the continuation of effective and regret-inducing defense.”
He also said Iran should continue to use the threat of closing the Strait of Hormuz as leverage in the conflict.
“Certainly the lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must continue to be used,” he wrote.
Khamenei added that Iranian officials were studying the possibility of expanding the war into additional fronts where adversaries were vulnerable.
“Studies have been conducted regarding the opening of other fronts in which the enemy has little experience and is highly vulnerable,” he said. “Activating them will take place if the state of war continues and if it serves our interests.”
The statement also praised what Iran calls the “Axis of Resistance,” thanking allied armed groups in the region for supporting Tehran.
“We consider the countries of the resistance front our best friends,” he wrote. “The resistance front is an inseparable part of the values of the Islamic Revolution.”
He specifically referred to Yemen’s Houthis, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and armed groups in Iraq, saying they had stood alongside Iran despite obstacles.
Calls for unity and public participation
Much of the message was directed at Iran’s domestic audience, urging unity and mobilization during wartime.
Khamenei said that during the days immediately following the killing of his father, when Iran had temporarily been without a supreme leader or commander-in-chief, the population itself had shown resilience.
“The insight and intelligence of the great nation of Iran in the recent events and its perseverance, courage and presence astonished friends and enemies alike,” he wrote.
He warned that leadership and government institutions could not function effectively without public support, urging Iranians to maintain active participation in society.
“If your power does not appear on the scene, neither leadership nor any of the institutions whose true role is to serve the people will have the necessary effectiveness,” read the statement.
The new leader also called on citizens to continue participating in political and social activities during the war, including rallies and demonstrations.
“I remind you of the importance of participation in Quds Day ceremonies, where the element of confronting the enemy must be emphasized.”
Threat of retaliation
A major portion of the message focused on retaliation against those responsible for deaths during the war.
Khamenei vowed that the Islamic Republic would continue pursuing revenge for those killed in the conflict. “We will not ignore revenge for the blood of your martyrs,” he wrote.
He said retaliation would not be limited to the killing of his father but would extend to all Iranian casualties.
“The revenge we seek is not only for the martyrdom of the great leader of the revolution,” he wrote. “Every member of the nation who is martyred by the enemy becomes an independent case for revenge.”
Khamenei said some retaliation had already occurred but that further actions would continue.
“A limited amount of this revenge has already taken place in practice. But until it reaches its complete extent, this case will remain open above all others.”
Warning to regional governments
Khamenei also issued a warning to governments in the Middle East whose territories host US military facilities.
He said Iranian forces had struck some of those bases during the war and suggested further attacks could follow.
“In the recent attack some military bases were used,” he wrote. “As we had clearly warned, and without attacking those countries themselves, we targeted only those bases.”
He added that Iran would continue striking such installations if they were used against the country.
“From now on we will be forced to continue doing this,” he wrote.
Khamenei urged regional governments to shut down foreign military bases.
“These countries must determine their position toward those who have attacked our homeland and killed our people,” he wrote. “I recommend they close those bases as soon as possible.”
For days the conflict had focused largely on military bases, missile sites and command facilities, particularly in southern Iran, as part of the wider US-Israeli campaign that has struck thousands of targets across the country since the war began on February 28.
But since Wednesday evening, reported drone strikes on checkpoints in Tehran have pointed to a parallel line of pressure: the local security posts, patrol units and temporary deployments used to enforce control on the streets.
Iranian state-linked media said several checkpoints in Tehran were hit, killing members of the security forces and Basij militia. The reported locations included positions in multiple districts across the capital.
The development suggests the conflict is increasingly intersecting with the structures the state relies on to control neighborhoods rather than only its larger military infrastructure.
From fixed bases to moving checkpoints
Since the start of the war, residents across Iran say checkpoints and patrols have multiplied in major cities as authorities attempt to prevent unrest and maintain control.
At the same time, Iran International has received a steady stream of messages from viewers describing the locations of checkpoints, security deployments and temporary bases.
Some reports describe armed units inspecting vehicles at major highway entrances or intersections. Others mention security forces using schools, sports halls and religious institutions as temporary accommodation or staging points.
Messages received in recent days pointed to deployments in locations ranging from major Tehran highways to entrances to cities such as Karaj, Shiraz, Mashhad and Qazvin. Residents also described units stationed beneath highway bridges, near parks or inside parking areas where buses and motorcycles were parked overnight.
In several cases, viewers reported that checkpoints they had previously seen disappeared within hours or days, while others appeared to move to nearby streets or disperse into smaller patrol groups.
Some messages described security forces sleeping inside buses or personal vehicles and conducting mobile patrols rather than remaining in fixed positions.
Others said checkpoints that had been inspecting vehicles were suddenly dismantled, leaving only a few officers nearby.
Such reports cannot be independently verified in each case. But taken together they suggest that many deployments are becoming more fluid, with positions shifting frequently rather than remaining in one place.
A war over control of the neighborhood
The shift reflects a deeper pressure on the state’s local enforcement network.
For years the Islamic Republic has relied on a dense web of Basij, police and Revolutionary Guards positions to control neighborhoods and quickly suppress unrest.
During the recent nationwide protests earlier this year, these same networks formed the backbone of the crackdown that sealed off districts and quashed the demonstrations.
In wartime, those local security units appear to be playing an even more central role.
As larger bases and installations come under pressure from airstrikes, authorities appear to be relying more heavily on mobile checkpoints and temporary deployments to maintain control on the ground.
Now those fallback positions are also being drawn into the conflict.
The result is a battlefield that increasingly overlaps with everyday urban space. Instead of remaining confined to distant military facilities, the war is beginning to touch the street corners, highway entrances and neighborhood patrol routes where the state exerts day-to-day authority.
The figures suggest Tehran’s oil lifeline has not been cut despite a widening maritime crisis that has already disrupted shipping and shaken energy markets since the war began on February 28.
Instead, the conflict is evolving into a prolonged contest over energy flows: Iran continues exporting oil – largely to China – while simultaneously applying military pressure on one of the world’s most important oil chokepoints.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage off Iran’s southern coast connecting the Persian Gulf to global markets, normally carries about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
But the waterway has effectively become a war zone.
Since the start of hostilities, at least 16 commercial vessels have been struck or attacked in and around the strait and the wider Persian Gulf, according to a Reuters tally.
The incidents have included attacks on tankers, bulk carriers and container ships, forcing evacuations, halting port operations in parts of Iraq and driving insurers and ship operators to reconsider voyages through the area.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have warned that ships passing through the strait could be targeted, reinforcing fears that the waterway is now being used as a pressure point in the wider conflict.
Release of strategic reserves
The growing disruption has pushed the International Energy Agency and major consuming nations to take the extraordinary step of releasing 400 million barrels from strategic reserves, the largest such intervention in the agency’s history.
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said the decision had already had a “strong impact” on markets and was aimed at stabilizing supply after the war triggered one of the biggest oil disruptions on record.
The agency estimates global supply could fall by 8 million barrels per day in March as production across the Middle East is curtailed and shipping through Hormuz slows to a fraction of normal levels.
But the reserve release has done little to calm markets.
Oil prices briefly surged above $100 a barrel this week and remain volatile as traders weigh the risk that shipping through the Persian Gulf could remain constrained for weeks or months.
Analysts say the problem is not simply the availability of oil but the difficulty of moving it safely through a militarized sea lane.
Joel Hancock, an energy analyst at Natixis CIB, said markets were questioning how quickly emergency reserves could reach buyers, warning that a market balanced through stock releases would be “far less logistically efficient.”
Shockwaves beyond oil
The war has also begun to ripple through global energy markets beyond crude.
In Europe, gas prices rose sharply as fears grew that tanker attacks in the Persian Gulf could disrupt shipments of liquefied natural gas, around 20% of which normally transits the Strait of Hormuz.
Qatar, one of the world’s largest LNG exporters, has declared force majeure on some shipments, tightening global supplies and raising concerns about Europe’s ability to refill depleted gas storage before next winter.
Financial markets have reacted nervously as well. Rising oil prices have revived fears of inflation and pushed investors to scale back expectations of interest rate cuts by major central banks.
The war’s central energy paradox is that Iran cannot fully shut global oil flows without hurting itself, yet it has shown it can make the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz dangerous enough to rattle markets and force governments to act, even while keeping a substantial share of its own exports – mainly to China – moving.