Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued one of his strongest denunciations of the West and Israel in recent months, vowing that the Islamic Republic would continue to confront what he described as Western-backed “savagery and bloodshed.”
"Standing up against the crimes and barbarism of the Zionist regime in Gaza and the West's support for this bloodshed is a collective duty," Khamenei told a group of Red Crescent Society rescue workers on Monday.
"Today, the world is being run by these human-like beasts, and the Islamic Republic considers it its duty to stand against their savagery and bloodshed," he added, according to a readout of his remarks published by his website on Wednesday.
The remarks were among the sharpest since talks between the United States and Iran began last month, and were published after US President Donald Trump lambasted Tehran's foreign and domestic policy in a Riyadh speech on Tuesday.
"It is precisely this sense of duty that drives enemies—like these well-dressed, cologne-wearing, Western savages in suits—to stand against and show hostility toward the Islamic Republic. If we stop opposing their barbarity, they would have no enmity with us," Khamenei said.
"The main issue of the Western bullies as the Islamic Republic's rejection of their false civilization and said: Falsehood is doomed to decline and destruction," he added.
