Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Wednesday celebrated the anti-Israel protests that have swept across U.S. college campuses in recent weeks, hailing the protesters as "a branch of the Resistance Front."
"Dear university students in the United States of America, you are standing on the right side of history," Khamenei wrote in an X post on Wednesday.
"You have now formed a branch of the Resistance Front and have begun an honorable struggle in the face of your government's ruthless pressure—which openly supports Zionists," the Iranian leader added in a reply to the original post.
Khamenei’s remarks followed weeks of chaotic and often violent anti-Israel protests on U.S. college campuses, which resulted in thousands of arrests and suspensions, as well as the cancellation of in-person classes and graduation ceremonies.
Iranian officials had also expressed support for Hamas shortly after its Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel. An adviser to the 85-year-old supreme leader publicly congratulated Hamas terrorists for the attack, while Iranian state television showed members of the Iranian parliament chanting "death to Israel" and "Palestine is victorious."
Khamenei, meanwhile, referred to the Israeli government as a "usurper Zionist regime" and a "cancer" just days before the attack. "This cancer will definitely be eradicated, God willing, at the hands of the Palestinian people and the resistance forces throughout the region," the Iranian ruler said.