Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei's new X account has been blocked

The social media platform

Early Monday, a short note on the suspended account said: “X will suspend accounts that violate X rules.”

The suspension came after Israel's first overt airstrikes against Iran in response to a ballistic missile attack by Iran against Israel on October 1.

It was not immediately clear what the X violation was.

The Elon Musk-owned social media company did not respond to a request for comment.

Speech by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Khamenei said in a speech on Sunday that Israel's strikes – in response to Iran's ballistic missile strike this month in which about 200 cruise missiles were fired – “should neither be exaggerated nor downplayed”, while stopping short of retaliatory measures to demand.

The X account, newly suspended on Sunday, began with a message in Hebrew that read: “In the name of God the Merciful,” a standard Islamic greeting.

The second post referred to Khamenei's speech and was sent on his English account as follows: “Zionists make a misjudgment regarding Iran. You don't know Iran. They were still unable to match the power, initiative, and determination of the Iranian people.”

Iran's Supreme Leader and Social Media

Khamenei's office has maintained multiple accounts for the 85-year-old supreme leader on X for years and has sent messages in various languages ​​in the past.

This is not the first time that Khamenei has had his social media accounts blocked.

In February, meta-platforms Facebook and Instagram removed accounts associated with the Iranian leader for labeling Hamas as the Iranian-backed militant group Hamas following the group's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 led the deadliest Palestinian militant attack in Israel's history.

This operation killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. Israel then launched its military operation in Gaza, killing about 42,000 Palestinians so far, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Platforms like X and Facebook have been officially blocked in Iran for years.

To get around these restrictions, citizens seeking access to them typically resort to virtual private networks (VPNs).

Response from Iraq

After Saturday's attack, Iraq submitted a protest memorandum to the United Nations Secretary-General and the UN Security Council saying Israel violated its airspace in the country's attack on Iran.

The Iraqi prime minister's office said in a statement that Israeli “aggressor aircraft violated Iraq's airspace and sovereignty and used Iraqi airspace to carry out the attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran on October 26.”

The statement also said that Iraq's foreign minister intended to discuss the matter with the United States.

This article contains reporting from The Associated Press