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Iran’s Supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Friday the country had dealt its enemies a “dizzying blow” in the war with the United States and Israel, as fresh blasts hit Tehran on the first day of the Persian New Year festival.

Iran’s top military spokesman, Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, warned that “parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations” worldwide won’t be safe for Tehran’s enemies. The threat renewed concerns that Iran may revert to using militant attacks beyond the Middle East as a pressure tactic.

Khamenei has not appeared in public since being named to succeed his father Ali Khamenei, who was killed in Israeli airstrikes at the start of the war that has engulfed the region, and has only issued written statements.

Iranians have “dealt them (the enemies) a dizzying blow so that they now starts uttering contradictory words and nonsense,” Khamenei said in a written message for Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

“At the moment, due to the particular unity that has been created between you our compatriots — despite all the differences in religious, intellectual, cultural and political origins — the enemy has been defeated,” Khamenei said in the message.

The statement of defiance came as Iranians marked a muted Nowruz under the shadow of a war now approaching its fourth week.

AFP journalists heard several blasts in Tehran on Friday, from the eastern and northern parts of the city.

In the Iranian capital’s markets, shoppers were out in force buying new clothes and gifts, although sidewalks were less packed than usual for this time of year, with many people having fled north, AFP correspondents said.