Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said that the US and Israel were seeking to destabilise the Islamic republic in a written message read on state television, AFP reports.

“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.