Injured Iran leader Khamenei breaks six-month public silence to urge Gulf rulers to confront 'real enemy'

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, unseen since being wounded in the US-Israeli airstrikes that killed his father and launched the Iran war, has resurfaced via Telegram to demand Muslim unity against America and Israel. The written message, timed to Islamic Unity Week, calls on Gulf Arab rulers to "identify your real enemy, understand his plan and confront it." It marks his first substantive statement in six months and comes days after he banned Iranians from actions harming national cohesion. The six-month milestone has also brought warnings of fertiliser shortages for British farmers and fresh fears of Iranian cyber attacks on UK infrastructure.

Khamenei challenged Gulf rulers with the question of whether 'rogues without identity' would dare covet their lands if Muslims stood united under Islam.

He asked pointedly whether Palestinians would have been left 'so defenceless' had the Islamic world stood together — a formulation that implicitly indicts Gulf states for their inaction.

The statement brands 'the criminal rulers of America and the fake Zionist regime' as sworn enemies of Muslim unity across the whole Islamic world, not just Iran.