Friday prayer leader says Iran is greater than its borders

TEHRAN: Iran is not limited to a “geographical location” as the Iran-backed factions around the region are “all Iran” now, high-ranking cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda said on Friday. “Iran, today, is not only Iran and not limited to a geographical location. Iraq´s Hashd al-Shaabi, Lebanon´s Hezbollah, Yemen´s Ansarullah, Syria´s National Defence Forces, Palestine´s Islamic jihad and Hamas are all Iran,” the semi-official news agency ISNA said during a Friday prayer sermon.

Iran backs all the mentioned factions, with Hashd al-Shaabi acting as a paramilitary alliance including Iran-backed Shiite groups. Ansarullah are the Huthi rebels fighting the Saudi coalition in Yemen, and the NDF is a pro-regime militia in the Syrian conflict. Alamolhoda is the Friday prayer leader of northeast Mashhad, Iran´s second-largest city, and also a member of the Assembly of Experts, an elected council of vetted clerics overseeing the work of Iran´s supreme leader and with the authority to dismiss him.

His remarks come only days after strikes on Saudi oil facilities blamed on Iran by the United States and its Gulf allies, charges which Tehran denies. Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels have claimed responsibility for Saturday’s strikes on Saudi oil infrastructures.