Iran's supreme leader said President Donald Trump is a 'clown' who only pretends to support the Iranian people but will 'push a poisonous dagger' into their backs, as he struck a defiant tone in his first Friday sermon in Tehran in eight years.
In this Feb. 3, 2012 photo released by an official website of the Iranian supreme leader's office, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers his sermons of Friday prayers at the Tehran University campus in Tehran, Iran.
As Iran's Revolutionary Guard braced for an American counterattack that never came, it mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian jetliner shortly after it took off from Tehran's international airport, killing all 176 passengers on board, mostly Iranians. He also lashed out at Western countries, saying they are too weak to "bring Iranians to their knees." He said Britain, France and Germany, which this week triggered a dispute mechanism to try and bring Iran back into compliance with the unraveling 2015 nuclear agreement, were "contemptible" governments and "servants" of the United States.Khamenei has held the country's top office since 1989 and has the final say on all major decisions.
The U.S. has since imposed crippling sanctions on Iran, including its vital oil and gas industry, pushing the country into an economic crisis that has ignited several waves of sporadic, leaderless protests. Trump has openly encouraged the protesters -- even tweeting in Farsi -- hoping that the protests and the sanctions will bring about fundamental change in a longtime adversary.
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