The acting Tehran Friday sermon leader has claimed the country's missile programme had "humiliated the United States," in defiant remarks delivered more than 160 days into Iran's war with a US-Israeli coalition.

The war, which is still ongoing but currently in a lull between the Iranians and the Americans, seemingly has no off-ramp for either side as Tehran continues to blockade the Strait of Hormuz while the American Navy continues to blockade the Iranians further into the Sea of Oman. The seemingly intractable position for both sides has now turned into a game of chicken with Washington hoping Tehran will crack before the global economy and the US oil reserves. 

Ahmad Khatami, a hardline cleric and interim Tehran Friday prayer leader, said the enemy had sought to destroy Iran's missile capability but failed, and that this same capability had brought the United States low and would continue to do so, state media reported.

Khatami listed what he described as eight instances of "divine favour towards Iran" during the conflict, among them the failure of efforts to topple the Islamic Republic, to break up the country, and to end its nuclear and missile programmes.

He claimed Iran had emerged as a global power and that its nuclear capability remained intact, referring to what he called a second Tabas, a reference invoking the failed 1980 US military operation in the Iranian desert which killed all servicemen on a secret mission. 

The sermon's triumphalist framing sits against a starkly different record. Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was killed on February 28 in a joint US-Israeli strike on his Tehran compound, one of more than 40 senior officials killed as the coalition campaign opened.

His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was elected supreme leader by the Assembly of Experts on March 8 after an opaque succession process following a strike on the meeting in Qom.

US and Israeli strikes have hit nuclear, energy and military infrastructure across the country, and the conflict, punctuated by a short-lived June memorandum of understanding that has since unravelled, remains unresolved.

Friday sermons across Iranian cities have become a vehicle for hardline messaging through the war, with prayer leaders variously demanding retaliation, rejecting talks with Washington and framing the fighting in religious terms; it is also seen as a direct message from the top office in the country to be disseminated to all towns and cities. 

Khatami, who sits on the Guardian Council and the Assembly of Experts, is among the most prominent voices in the hardline camp and has a history of fiery rhetoric.