September 17, 2026 - The epithet was coined by Iranian ... of the Iran hostage crisis. In the speech, he condemned the United States as an imperialist power that sponsored corruption throughout the world. Khomeini introduced the epithet as the larger of a pair, using the term "Little Satan" to refer to Israel, particularly ...

September 17, 2026 - According to other sources, such as the Glasgow Herald, Colonel Gaddafi of Libya stated that "Israel is the little Satan" in July 1980. Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, used this phrase when referring to Iranian rhetoric during a visit to the United States stating that: "For the ...

July 15, 2011 - (...) Definition of the term Khomeini is quoted as saying on November 5, 1979, ”(Americans) are the great Satan, the wounded snake.” The term was used extensively during and after the Islamic Revolution, but it continues to be in used in some Iranian political circles.

February 7, 2023 - After the 1979 revolution, the new Islamic Republic labeled the United States the “Great Satan” and Israel the “Little Satan.” Iran has engaged in a shadow war with both ...

January 26, 2026 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini labeled the United States “the Great Satan,” framing it as the source of Iran’s oppression under the Shah and a threat to its independence. Israel, in turn, was labeled “the Little Satan.”

July 15, 2011 - (...) Definition of the term Khomeini is quoted as saying on November 5, 1979, ”(Americans) are the great Satan, the wounded snake.” The term was used extensively during and after the Islamic Revolution, but it continues to be in used in some Iranian political circles.

January 14, 2026 - Introduced by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the term complements "Great Satan" by emphasizing Israel's perceived role as an American outpost, enabling Tehran to conflate anti-Zionism with broader anti-imperialist narratives rooted in post-colonial grievances.[47][48] This framing positions Israel not as an independent actor but as a tool for U.S. strategic interests, including alleged suppression of Palestinian self-determination and regional Arab sovereignty. In Iranian strategy, the "Little Satan" label serves to legitimize Tehran's sponsorship of militant proxies confronting Israel, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, by depicting their actions as defensive jihad against a U.S.-orchestrated oppressor.

February 17, 2024 - Why the US and the Islamic Republic of Iran have been at each other's throats for more than four decades ... Since its inception in 1979, the Shia theocracy now led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a council of clerics has considered ...

President Rafsanjani said in 2001, the reason an Islamic country would want nuclear weapons is to destroy Israel. If America is the Great Satan, according to Iran, Israel is the Little Satan.

4 days ago - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the ... and "Little Satan" in 1979 and cut off diplomatic relations, characterizing as illegitimate Israel's backing of the Shah, its close ties to the U.S., and its role in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The rejection of Israel's legitimacy has remained consistent across both hardline and moderate Iranian leaderships. Supreme Leaders Ruhollah Khomeini and Ali Khamenei have both repeatedly referred to "the Zionist ...

March 8, 2026 - Long before the open warfare of recent months, the US and Iran have been locked into decades of low-level conflict. Since the revolution of 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has considered the US the “Great Satan” (Israel is dubbed the ...

September 8, 2026 - Iran had its own vocabulary, with roots that were theological before becoming political. The designation of America by the Islamic Republic’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the “Great Satan” drew on the Quranic figure of shaitan ar-rajim (accursed one/outcast devil).

April 2, 2026 - Iran cast the United States as the “Great Satan,” with habitual chants against America and Israel at virtually every officially sanctioned prayer gathering or demonstration. All that might seem like agitprop.

July 1, 2025 - Do not let anyone tell you this is an Israel problem. Iran’s leaders refer to Israel as the “Little Satan,” and the U.S. as the “Great Satan.” In the wake of the Israeli strikes, Iranian leaders are already suggesting they intend to attack the U.S. and our interests in the Middle East.

July 29, 2026 - He justified this action with a litany of grievances against Iran’s former ally, branding it as the Great Satan. Among these grievances, two have been and are still persistently highlighted: the American-sponsored 1953 coup against liberal nationalist Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, who had nationalized Iran’s oil industry; and America’s hostility against the Islamic revolution in 1978-79. The recurrent reference to the 1953 coup by Iranian diplomats serves their anti-American rhetoric, allowing them to portray their military and political intrusions in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen as part of a legitimate “axis of resistance” against American imperialism.

June 21, 2025 - It spreads across geographies, through a web of proxies, militias, sleeper cells, and ideological schools. From Baghdad to Beirut, from Damascus to Sana’a, from the slums of South Lebanon to the mosques of Berlin, the Islamic Republic’s Satanic narrative echoes: America corrupts, Israel occupies, and Iran resists.

September 3, 2015 - Soon after the Gaza pullout, the headline on a lengthy interview with Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Iranian-backed Hizballah, proclaimed: “We, Too, Drove Out the Israeli Cowards.” The reference was to Israel’s prior withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000—a retreat that in the eyes of Ayatollah Khamenei had similarly “proved the justness of the Islamic struggle” and demonstrated that if Muslims put their trust in God, “victory will be certain.” As for Israel’s July 2006 incursion into Lebanon in response to the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, Iranians were initially shocked by the force of it.