Supreme leader emerges

last updated 8 January 2015

Qum, Iran

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dispelled rumors of his death by delivering a tough speech this week about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Several Islamist Web sites erroneously reported last week that Khamenei had died. “The Iranian people will definitely not give up their right and the authorities have no right to give up this great achievement,” he said, appearing in public in Qum. The U.N. Security Council last month threatened Iran with further sanctions if it does not stop its nuclear enrichment programs by February. Khamenei warned his neighbors that participating in sanctions just to “earn the satisfaction of the Zionist regime” in the U.S. would be a “political blunder.”