Cartoon by Deniz O. Ilhan

Khamenei says West opposes Iran over Islamic order, not nuclear issue

Iran International: Western hostility toward Tehran stems from its challenge to the global order rather than its nuclear program, Iran’s supreme leader said, arguing that the core dispute is ideological.

The problem between the Islamic Republic and Western powers “is not the nuclear issue,” but opposition to Iran’s plan “to establish a national and international Islamic order,” Ali Khamenei said in a message issued Saturday to the annual meeting of Islamic student associations in Europe.

He framed the confrontation as resistance to an “unjust global order and the system of domination.”

“The heavy assault of the US army and its disgraceful appendage in the region was defeated by the initiative, courage and sacrifice of Iran’s young people,” Khamenei said in a reference to recent regional conflicts.

Costs of confrontation

The remarks came after a 12-day war that left Iran with significant losses among senior military commanders and caused damage to nuclear, military and security infrastructure. Critics say the confrontation with the West, shaped by Khamenei’s policies over more than three decades, has imposed heavy costs on the population, with sanctions crippling large parts of the economy, weakening the currency and driving up the cost of living.

Despite this, senior officials have continued to defend the strategy. On Friday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged that sanctions have contributed to economic disorder but portrayed them as a factor behind Iran’s industrial “independence” and the development of its defence and missile sectors.

Speaking earlier in Isfahan, Araghchi said Iranians must accept the reality of sanctions and “accept that it is possible to live with sanctions.” He added that while sanctions have costs, he also knew their “blessings,” comments that triggered a wave of public criticism from citizens who said officials were disconnected from daily economic hardship.

Nuclear dispute still central

Khamenei’s insistence that the nuclear issue is secondary contrasts with Tehran’s recent remarks that reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency helped pave the way for Israeli and US attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

On June 12, the IAEA’s board of governors adopted a resolution accusing Iran of breaching safeguards by accumulating highly enriched uranium and restricting inspectors’ access, and called on Tehran to resume full cooperation.

The supreme leader’s comments also come as Iran-backed groups across the region are widely viewed as major sources of instability in the Middle East, complicating Tehran’s efforts to cast its confrontation with the West as purely ideological.