Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei: Iran has no proxies

In a perhaps bitterly amusing statement, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently said that Iran does not have proxy forces or need proxy forces throughout the region, claiming Hamas, Hezbollah and others operate of their own accord, according to Iran International.

In a statement he made before other Islamic clerics, Khamenei said that the west and Israel "keep saying that the Islamic Republic has lost its proxies in the region. This is another falsehood. The Islamic Republic does not have proxies."

He then said that "Yemen," a reference to Houthi forces, "is fighting because of its faith. Hezbollah fights because its faith-driven power brings it to the battlefield. Hamas and Islamic Jihad fight because their beliefs make them to do so. They do not act as our proxies. If we ever decide to act, we do not need proxies."

Khamenei then accused the United States of deliberately creating chaos in Syria due to the failure to establish a pliant tyranny in that country: " In Syria, this unrest has turned regional, leading them to mistakenly believe they have achieved victory."