Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that the United States "must and will leave" the region, following a visit to Gulf Arab states by President Donald Trump.
"With the determination of the region's nations, America must and will leave this region," Khamenei said in a televised address, criticising what he called a failed US model aimed at keeping Gulf states dependent on US support.
Khamenei accused US President Donald Trump of lying about using American power to establish peace in war-ravaged Gaza. "Trump claimed he wants to use power to achieve peace, he lied," Khamenei said and added "He and the American officials, and American administrations, have used power to support the massacre in Gaza, to ignite wars wherever they could and to back their own mercenaries."
Khamenei denounced recent remarks by President Trump as a “disgrace” to the American nation. “The recent remarks of the US president during his visit to the region are a disgrace to the speaker and a disgrace to the American nation,” Khamenei said during a meeting with a group of teachers and educators from across the country in Tehran on Saturday.
He said the US has used its power not for peace but to kill the children and people of Gaza, as opposed to what Trump claimed. “Trump said he wanted to use power for peace; he lied,” Khamenei asserted.
“He and American officials, American administration, used power to massacre Gaza, to incite war wherever they could, and to support their own mercenaries.”
He went on to say that power, nevertheless, can be used for peace and security and that is why the Islamic Republic is striving every day to boost its power. “But they did not do this,” he stated, adding, “They used their power to give the Zionist regime ten-ton bombs to drop on the children of Gaza, hospitals, people’s homes, in Lebanon and wherever they could.”
According to Khamenei, the US president is offering regional Arab countries a model that, in his own words, these countries cannot live without the US for even 10 days. “This model has definitely failed,” he noted.
“With the struggles of regional nations, the US must and will leave this region,” the Iranian leader said.
Khamenei also called the Israeli regime the “source of corruption, the source of war, and the source of discord” in the region, adding: “The Zionist regime, which is a dangerous and malignant cancerous tumour in this region, must and will be uprooted.”