Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first statement on Thursday after succeeding his father, Ali Khamenei, who was killed along with several family members in US-Israeli strikes at the outset of the ongoing West Asia war.In a message broadcast on Iranian state television and read out by a news anchor, Khamenei vowed that Tehran would “avenge the blood of Iranians” killed during the conflict and warned that Iran would continue targeting US bases across the region.“We are not enemies of the countries around us,” the statement said, adding, “But the existence of US bases in some of these countries and their use to attack Iran is not benefiting the region and they must be closed.”He also warned that Iran would continue using the threat of blocking the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz as leverage against the US and Israel.Linking the war to personal loss, Khamenei said members of his own family were among those killed in the strikes. “I lost my father and my wife. My sister lost her child and her husband,” he said, adding that patience and faith would guide Iran through the crisis.The statement demanded compensation for war damages, warning that Iran could seize or destroy foreign assets if reparations were denied.The remarks echoed Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who earlier said in talks with leaders of Russia and Pakistan that peace would require recognition of Iran’s rights, reparations for war losses and firm international guarantees against future aggression.Around the same time that Khamenei’s statement was broadcast, US President Donald Trump commented on the escalating crisis, saying surging global oil prices could financially benefit Washington because the US was the world’s largest oil producer.However, Trump also reiterated that preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons remained a core US objective. “Of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stopping an evil empire, Iran, from having nuclear weapons and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the world,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.Khamenei’s first message as Supreme Leader underscores Tehran’s hardening stance as the conflict widens across West Asia, with Iran signalling that it is prepared for a prolonged confrontation while continuing to leverage both military retaliation and economic pressure, including the threat to disrupt global oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz.