In his first Friday sermon delivery since 2012, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has defended the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) amid a growing backlash after it mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 people on board.
Khamenei's address comes as Iran and its rulers face intense pressure at home and abroad after the United States assassinated General Qassem Soleimani, former leader of the elite Quds Force, and public anger erupted at Iran's military after its accidental downing of the commercial airliner soon after it took off from Tehran on January 8.
The Iranian leader's statement drew a quick response from US President Donald Trump, who on Friday evening wrote on social media: "He should be very careful with his words."
He added in a separate post that Iranians "deserve a government that's more interested in helping them achieve their dreams than killing them for demanding respect".
In his sermon earlier on Friday, Khamenei described the downing of the plane as a "bitter" tragedy and also claimed that "Iran's enemies" used the crash and the military's admission to "weaken" the IRGC.
"The plane crash was a bitter accident, it burned through our heart," Khamenei said.
"But some tried to ... portray it in a way to forget the great martyrdom and sacrifice" of Soleimani, he added, referring to the slain head of the IRGC's foreign operations arm.
"Our enemies were as happy about the plane crash as we were sad ... happy that they found something to question the Guard, the armed forces, the system."
Source : aljazeera.com
