Supreme Leader’s assassination latest in US-Israeli hostilities against Iran: Diplomat

Mumbai, March 2 (IANS) The killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint US‑Israel strike is the latest chapter in decades of hostilities against Iran, an Iranian diplomat said on Monday, highlighting long-standing grievances against both countries.

Speaking to IANS, Iran’s Consul General in Mumbai, Saeid Reza Mosayeb Motlagh, said: “We have grown accustomed to the assassinations that have been carried out over the years since the very beginning of the Revolution. This is not their (Israel/US) first assassination, and it certainly will not be their last.”

He added that such acts have been executed either through agents and proxy forces inside Iran or, in recent months, through several direct assassinations openly acknowledged by the perpetrators.

“Unfortunately, the terrorist actions committed in our country by what we regard as the terrorist regime of Israel and by the United States are not unprecedented. This is not the first time such incidents have occurred, and God willing, we hope it will be the last,” Motlagh stated.

On the timing of the attack, he said: “Unfortunately, as we had experienced before, the US and Israel carried out this attack in the middle of negotiations. Before this interview, I was reading the statements of one of the Omani diplomats who repeatedly emphasised that everything was settled and all parties had reached a consensus. But, like our previous experience, they (the US) backed out of everything. This is a familiar experience for us where the US breaks its promises, right from the beginning till date.”

The killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, marks a significant escalation in a region already fraught with tension. Tehran has vowed to respond to what it calls a “blatant act of terrorism”, while global powers watch closely, wary of how this high-profile assassination might reshape diplomatic and security dynamics in the Middle East.

–IANS

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