TEHRAN — Iran is facing a multifaceted “hybrid war” involving military, economic, media and cultural pressure, Tehran’s interim Friday prayer leader, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, said on Friday, predicting that efforts to isolate the country economically would ultimately fail.

Speaking during Friday prayers, Khatami said the military dimension of a war against Iran was continuing.

He condemned the conduct of the military campaign as “unfair” and “despicable,” arguing that wars were governed by rules that, in his view, US President Donald Trump had failed to observe.

“War has its own rules, but this damned Trump does not understand those rules,” Khatami said.

Referring to the reported killing of 168 children in an attack on a school, he asked: “What crime had these 168 children committed?” He added that children were protected under international laws.

Khatami also referred to attacks involving athletes and wedding ceremonies, saying civilians should not be targeted.

“What crime have the athletes committed?” he said. “You turn people’s weddings into funerals.”

The cleric praised Iran’s armed forces for 'a strong and honorable response to the attacks.'

“Our armed forces have responded to their unjust war in the best possible way,” he said.

He said, however, that the confrontation extended well beyond the military sphere.

“Alongside the military war, there is also an economic war,” Khatami said, arguing that economic pressure against Iran had been waged since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

He said the campaign also included 'a media war involving misinformation against the Islamic Republic, as well as a cultural campaign against the country’s political system.'

Khatami said economic pressure was therefore one of several components of 'a broader hybrid war against Iran.'