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Unity Week Message
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei marked Islamic Unity Week on August 30, 2026, by issuing a written statement that designated the United States and Israel as enemies of the entire Muslim Ummah.
““My emphatic and repeated recommendation to the rulers of Islamic countries, especially the countries of West Asia and the Gulf, is to identify your real enemy, understand his plan and confront it,” Khamenei said.”
In the message, published on Khamenei’s Telegram account, he urged rulers of Islamic countries—particularly those in West Asia and the Persian Gulf—to “know their true enemy, understand its plan and confront it,” and warned that divisions among Muslims serve the interests of their adversaries.
The Tehran Times described the call as a push for solidarity across the Islamic world, saying Khamenei framed the “criminal rulers of the United States and the illegitimate Zionist regime” as sworn enemies of Muslim unity and friendship.
The Reuters account tied the timing to the Islamic Unity Week initiative and said Khamenei’s call for unity included cooperation in various fields and mutual defence, while asking whether Palestinians would have been left “so helpless” if Muslims had been united.
Rivalry With Gulf States
The message arrived as tensions between Iran and Gulf Arab states were described as heightened, with the Reuters account saying Khamenei’s renewed effort sought to rally regional support amid hostilities and ceasefire collapses.
Reuters also said Khamenei asked Gulf Arab rulers whether “rogues without identity” would have dared to covet their lands and possessions if the peoples and governments of the Gulf had been “united under the flag of Islam.”
France 24, citing the written appeal, reported that Khamenei warned that “Every person, regardless of position, who takes any action that leads to division among Muslims” helps the goals of the enemies of Islam.
DW reported that Khamenei’s message called for unity against the United States and Israel by recognizing the “real enemy” and neutralizing its programs, while noting that diplomatic efforts to end hostilities had yet to yield results after a 60-day deadline expired earlier this month.
War Context and Next Moves
The Reuters account placed Khamenei’s Islamic Unity Week message against a backdrop of a war that had entered its seventh month, with the teleSUR English report saying the conflict began after Operation Epic Fury on February 28, 2026.
“Khamenei has not been seen in public since being injured in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes six months ago”
Reuters said Khamenei had not been seen in public since being injured in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes six months earlier that killed his father and previous supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and it said his call for unity echoed a statement he made on Friday to Iranians.
DW added that Iranian officials have released no video or audio files of him since his appointment, while Reuters reported that the message was published on Khamenei’s Telegram account for Islamic Unity Week.
In the same broader context, the Jerusalem Post said Khamenei urged Gulf rulers to “identify their real enemy and understand the plans to confront it,” and it reported that his message was issued in commemoration of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed.