DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader on Thursday said the only place Americans belong in the Persian Gulf is “at the bottom of its waters,” as the Strait of Hormuz remains in Tehran’s chokehold.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei spoke in a written statement read aloud on Iranian state television, as he has since he took over after the Feb. 28 airstrike that killed his 86-year-old father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“By God’s help and power, the bright future of the Persian Gulf region will be a future without America, one serving the progress, comfort and prosperity of its people,” Khamenei said in the statement.
“We and our neighbors across the waters of the Persian Gulf and the (Gulf) of Oman share a common destiny. Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometers away to act with greed and malice there have no place in it — except at the bottom of its waters.”
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