Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned of an escalation of Iran's global jihad in his official statement in response to the U.S. military's assassination of the general of the Iranian Quds Force, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

"All enemies should know that the Jihad of Resistance will continue with a doubled motivation, and a definite victory awaits the fighters in the holy war," he said Friday.

Khamenei reiterated his statement on Twitter:

Islamic jihadism divides the world into two camps: the House of Islam (dar al Islam) and the House of War (dar al harb) — the house of war being all who oppose Islamic global supremacy in the form of a worldwide Muslim caliphate.

The holy war the ayatollah referred to is Islam's resistance against the House of War, which is impeding the Islamic Republic of Iran's quest for the subjugation of the world to Allah's law (sharia).  This Jihad of Resistance is often framed as a divinely sanctioned war against Israel and the Christian West led by the U.S.

Iran's Constitution states this revolutionary objective clearly:

In the organization and equipping of the country's defense forces, there must be regard for faith and religion as its basis and rules. And so the Islamic Republic's army, and the corps of Revolutionary Guards must be organized in accordance with this aim. They have responsibility not only for the safeguarding of the frontiers, but also for a religious mission, which is Holy War (JIHAD) along the way of Allah, and the struggle to extend the supremacy of Allah's Law in the world.

Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah and your enemies, and others beside. (Sura: 8, Verse: 60 — Quran quoted in Arabic in the Iran Constitution)

In Iraq, Muqtada al-Sadr, who leads Iraq's Shi'ite militias — including the Mahdi Army and Promised Day Brigade — and whose Sairun coalition won the most seats in the recent Iraq parliamentary election, made this call to all Mujahideen or Islamic war-fighters in response to the assassination:

All Mujahideen & Shi'ite forces in Iraq: As the patron of the patriotic Iraqi resistance I give the order for all mujahideen, specially the Mehdi Army, Promised Day Brigade, and all patriotic and disciplined groups to be ready to protect Iraq.

Closely aligned with Sadr is Hezb'allah's leader in Lebanon, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who in his statement released on Friday reiterated the call for global jihad by underscoring that the "murderous Americans would not be able, Allah willing, to achieve any of their goals with this great crime.  Meting out the appropriate punishment to these criminal assassins ... will be the responsibility and task of all resistance fighters worldwide."

The politburo of Ansar Allah (partisans of Allah), the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen, in their statement on Friday described the execution of Soleimani as a "war crime by the White House against the entire Muslim Ummah, the anti-Israel axis of resistance and the Palestinian cause" and called for continued resistance and the expulsion of U.S. forces from the region.

Iranian president Rouhani also used the assassination as an excuse to rally Muslims against the U.S.:

The martyrdom of the great commander of Islam and Iran, and the courageous commander of the Quds Force, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, along with some of his companions especially the great fighter Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, by the aggressive and criminal US broke the heart of the entire nation of Iran and regional nations.

He went on to say in the statement that the assassination "doubled the determination of the great nation of Iran and other free nations to stand against and resist the excessive demands of the U.S. and to defend the Islamic values."

Representing only 10–15% of the world's Muslim population, Iran and its Shi'ite proxies will have a difficult time convincing the Sunnis — the other 85–90% of the Ummah — of the righteousness of their revenge.  Shi'ites and Sunnis have been at war with each other for centuries, recently expressed through the proxy war in Syria and the Yemen war between the Iran-backed Shi'ite Houthis and the Saudi Arabia–led coalition of Sunni nations.

Mark Hanna holds an M.A. in international studies and has provided briefings to government officials on immigration, radical Islam, and other national security issues.  He has worked for CNN as well as NBC and PBS affiliates and has been published in Real Clear Politics, PJMedia, ZeroHedge, and The Investigative Project.  He can be reached at mhanna@protonmail.com.