Iran's national security chief Ali Larijani on March13 openly attended a mass rally in Tehran alongside other top officials, dismissing the latest Israeli-U.S. attacks on the capital as being "out of desperation.”
"These attacks are out of fear, out of desperation. One who is strong wouldn't bomb demonstrations at all. It's clear that it has failed," Larijani told state TV while marching for the annual Quds Day rally in support of the Palestinian cause.
Striking a defiant tone, he said U.S. President Donald Trump "doesn't understand that the Iranian people are a brave nation, a strong nation, a determined nation. The more he presses, the stronger the nation's determination will become."
The attendance by Larijani was one of the most high-profile public appearances by an Iranian official since the Feb. 28 strike that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials.
Huge explosions rocked central Tehran on March 13 in an area not far from where the demonstration was being held, state television said.
Holding images of Ali Khamenei and his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei, people marched through Tehran in the annual show of support for the Palestinian cause and show of opposition to Israel, trampling on images of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
