Following Friday prayers, thousands took to the streets in Tehran, Baghdad, and Beirut to denounce Israel’s military actions against Iran, voicing strong opposition to both Israel and its chief ally, the United States.
Footage broadcast by Iranian state television captured scenes of demonstrators in Tehran holding aloft portraits of high-ranking commanders killed since the conflict began. Others waved national flags alongside those of Hezbollah, signaling a show of solidarity across regional lines amid escalating tensions.
“This is the Friday of the Iranian nation’s solidarity and resistance across the country,” the news anchor said.
“I will sacrifice my life for my leader,” read a protester’s banner, referring to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
According to state television, protests took place in other cities around the country, including in Tabriz in northwestern Iran and Shiraz in the south.
Last week, Israel launched a blistering attack on Iran, prompting Tehran to retaliate with barrages of missiles aimed at Israel.
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Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari, the Imam leading Tehran’s prayers, told worshippers that Israel had attacked Iran out of “despair”, the official IRNA news agency reported.
He accused Israel of launching a “psychological war” to “pit the people of the country against the government”.
“Their plans were precise, but their calculations were laughable,” the Imam said.
Amid escalating warnings of a full-scale regional conflict, growing concern surrounds the potential involvement of Iran-aligned Iraqi militias, who have issued stark threats against U.S. interests should Washington align itself militarily with Israel in its confrontation with Iran.
These factions, long seen as proxies for Tehran, have vowed retaliation if the United States deepens its role in the unfolding hostilities—raising fears that the conflict could rapidly expand beyond its current fronts.