By Mukesh 
Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei in his latest written message said that the Islamic republic does not want war with the United States and Israel, but would protect its rights as a nation, state television reported Thursday (April 9, 2026).
“We did not seek war and we do not want it,” he said in the message read out on state TV, coinciding with 40 days since his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on February 28, the first day of the war.
“But we will not renounce our legitimate rights under any circumstances, and in this respect, we consider the entire resistance front as a whole,” he added, in an apparent reference to Lebanon where Israel is fighting a war with Tehran’s ally Hezbollah.