 "Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Source: AFP.")
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei created an account on Elon Musk owned X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday to engage with his Israeli followers, but his presence did not last long. Hours after being created and a mere two posts, Khamenei’s Hebrew-language X account was locked for him for use.
Why has Khamenei’s X account been suspended?
The account, @Khamenei_Heb was suspended on Sunday after he threatened to retaliate the recent Israeli strike on Iran.
Iran’s supreme leader posted, “The Zionist regime made a mistake. It made a miscalculation regarding Iran. We will make it understand Iran’s power, capability, and resolve.”
His account now reads that it has been suspended for violating X’s rules.
On Saturday (October 26), Israel conducted airstrikes targeting military sites in Iran in which four Iranian soldiers were killed. Israel’s attack was a response to Tehran’s October 1 attack in Tel Aviv when it fired around 200 ballistic missiles.
As per Iranian media, Khamenei asserted that the attack on Tehran should not be downplayed and that the Iranian officials should determine how best to demonstrate Iran’s power to Israel.
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More Shorts“The evil committed by the Zionist regime (Israel) two nights ago should neither be downplayed nor exaggerated”, Khamenei was quoted Khamenei as saying by Iranian media.
What was Khamenei’s first post?
On Saturday night, Khamenei made an account on X to connect with Israelis in Hebrew and in his inaugural post he wrote, “In the name of Allah, the most merciful."
Hours later, Khamenei started criticising Israel through his message. The post was removed, drawing no immediate response from X.
However, ZAKA, an Israeli emergency response organisation, replied, mentioning a line from the Jewish Kaddish prayer for the deceased.
According to a report by The Economic Times, the response from ZAKA translates to a subtle message hinting at Khamenei’s end.
Khamenei’s Hebrew message was also reposted on his official English-language X account – Khamenei.ir. The English post retained the same warning tone aimed at Israel.
Israel’s strikes on Iran should not be magnified
According to a report by CNN, Khamenei, on Sunday, had also said that Israel’s airstrikes on Iran should not be magnified nor downplayed. While Israel would like to amplify the impacts of its actions against Iran, it would also not be right for Iran to dismiss the strikes as insignificant, he said.
With inputs from agencies.