Iran supreme leader says US, Israel seek to 'bring nation to its knees'

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday that the United States and Israel were seeking to destabilise the Islamic republic in a written message read on state television.

"The enemy's blind plan, after the imposed war, the economic pressure, and the political and propaganda siege, is to create divisions and disintegration in order to compensate for military defeats and bring the nation to its knees," said Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since before he took office in March.

In his message, which marked the anniversary of the founding of the Islamic republic's national legislature, he further called for unity and "cohesion" among Iranians.

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, succeeded his father supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed on 28 February in the opening US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which sparked a war across the region.