Ali Larijani, former chairman of the parliament of Iran, reacts as he registers as a candidate for the presidential election at the Interior Ministry, in Tehran, Iran May 31, 2024. (Credit: Majid Asgaripour/WANA/ via Reuters)
Iran's national security chief Ali Larijani on Friday openly attended a mass rally in Tehran alongside other top officials, dismissing the latest Israeli-U.S. attacks on the capital as being "out of desperation".
"These attacks are out of fear, out of desperation. One who is strong wouldn't bomb demonstrations at all. It's clear that it has failed," Larijani told state TV while marching for the annual Quds Day rally in support of the Palestinian cause.
Striking a defiant tone, he said, U.S. President Donald Trump "doesn't understand that the Iranian people are a brave nation, a strong nation, a determined nation. The more he presses, the stronger the nation's determination will become."
The attendance by Larijani was one of the most high-profile public appearances by an Iranian official since the Feb. 28 strike that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials.
Judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei and national police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan also attended the rally, state TV pictures showed.
Huge explosions rocked central Tehran on Friday in an area not far from where the demonstration was being held, state television said.
One blast was heard as Ejei was speaking to state TV. "Our people are not afraid of the bombing, we will continue along this route," he said.
Holding images of Ali Khamenei and his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei, people marched through Tehran in the annual show of support for the Palestinian cause and show of opposition to Israel, trampling on images of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to AFP journalists.
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