Iranian citizens expressed their strong emotions by burning flags of the United States and Israel and declaring their loyalty to the government in large demonstrations held nationwide.
Following the weekly prayers, crowds of people gathered in the streets of the capital, shouting anti-Western slogans and promising their allegiance to the Supreme Leader.
Despite calls from Israel for the Iranian population to rebel against the current regime, pockets of support for the Islamic government still exist within the country.
But alongside their loyalty to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the crowds aimed vitriolic hate at Israel and the West.
Photos show Israeli and US flag deliberately set on fire and trampled on.
A sea of Iranian and Hezbollah flags and photos of Khamenei were paraded through the roads.
Footage also shows demonstrators brandishing pictures of commanders killed over the past week by Israel’s missiles.
One banner read: “I will sacrifice my life for my leader.”
Iranian state TV said: “This is the Friday of the Iranian nation’s solidarity and resistance across the country.”
The broadcaster said that protests also took place in other cities – particularly Tabriz in northwestern Iran and Shiraz in the south.
And there are reports of smaller scale gatherings in towns around the country.
While these crowds back the regime, there are plenty in Iran who want to see it toppled and the people finally freed from its tyranny.
Thousands have drained from Tehran and even left the country.
Friday’s protests were by far the largest since Israel and Iran began trading missiles.
People took to the streets despite the ongoing threat of Israeli bombs.
In Isfahan, home to one of the nuclear facilities Israel has hit, thousands joined in the funeral of an Iranian killed in an Israeli attack.
Several men were seen carrying a coffin draped with Iranian flags and with a photo of a uniformed soldier.
Behind them, men, women and children followed, chanting: “Death to Israel, death to America.”
Protester Abu Hussein, a 54-year-old taxi driver, told Arab News: “It is an unjust war… Israel has no right.
“Israel is not in it for the (Iranian) nuclear (program).
“What Israel and the Americans want is to dominate the Middle East.”
The protests came on a day that efforts to find a diplomatic solution got gathered momentum.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi travelled to Geneva to meet European foreign minsters – including those from the UK, Germany and France.
Earlier in the day, he attended a special meeting of the UN’s Human Rights Council.
Meanwhile, the UN’s Security Council met in New York upon Iran’s request.
