Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's threat to retaliate against Israel for the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh holds little meaning after his country's failed airstrikes in April, Amir Fakhravar, the chairman of the National Iranian Congress, said on Newsmax on Thursday.
"The retaliation coming from the Iranian mullahs probably had some meaning before," Fakhravar told "Wake Up America."
But the ayatollah also ordered the April 13 airstrikes on Israel, sending 300 cruise and ballistic missiles and drones, but "almost none of those could achieve the goal to, just be in Israel and make a damage," Fakhravar said.
Fakhravar looked back at the "very powerful policy" under former President Donald Trump, who "killed Qassem Soleimani" and sanctioned Iranian oil to bankrupt the country.
"That policy worked," Fakhravar said. "Then the Biden administration, they came and they said, 'OK, let's give the mullahs billions of dollars and see what they are going to do.'"
Fakhravar said Haniyeh "had $5 billion in his bank account in Qatar" when he was killed, with the money coming from the Iranian supreme leader.
But now, the ayatollah is running scared of the Israeli strikes, Fakhravar said.
"The supreme leader was going to pray for Haniyeh before sending his body to Qatar," said Fakhravar. "During the prayer, I posted that video on my Instagram page that Khamenei is looking up and around and he's worried about the Israeli drones to come and kill him in Tehran."
This shows that the regime is "shaking and it's the end of the mullahs' regime in Iran," Fakhravar said. "We just need somebody to have courage at the White House to go and destroy them. Let's hope President Trump will come back to the White House to take care of the job."
Fakhravar also Thursday criticized CNN for reporting that Haniyeh was a "moderate" voice in the ongoing Hamas-Israel negotiations.
"[He] was directly involved in giving orders for Oct. 7 and even prayed when he was in his luxury hotel in Qatar when the attack happened," Fakhravar said. "He was in a very close circle of trust."
Fakhravar also pointed out that some people think the Iranian mullahs and the country's new president are moderates, but he insisted they are not.
"All of these people, they are serial killers," he said. "They are terrorists. You cannot call them moderate and wait for some type of negotiation. ... It was wrong before, it's wrong now, and it will be wrong for the future."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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