Vladimir Putin has shamelessly condemned the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a ‘cynical violation’ of ‘international law’, as the ‘axis of evil’ comes together in a chorus of condemnation.
The Russian dictator said the joint US-Israeli strikes on the Supreme Leader’s home in Tehran on Saturday – which also killed his daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law – lacked ‘human morality’.
In a note to Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, Putin said: ‘Please accept my deep condolences in connection with the murder of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Seyed Ali Khamenei, and members of his family, committed in cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law.’
His comments on Sunday came just days after the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Putin was joined by other leaders of the so-called axis of evil in condemning Khamenei’s killing – as China and North Korea linked arms with Russia.
China ‘strongly condemns’ the US-Israeli joint operation and called again for a halt to military actions.
Beijing’s foreign ministry said the killing was ‘a serious violation of Iran’s sovereignty and security, a trampling on the aims and principles of the UN Charter and the basic norms of international relations’.
‘China firmly opposes and strongly condemns this’, it added, calling for an ‘immediate halting of military operations’.
The condemnation came just after Chinese state media reported a phone call between Beijing’s foreign minister Wang Yi and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
During the conversation, which state news agency Xinhua said was initiated by Lavrov, Wang said the ‘blatant killing of a sovereign leader and the incitement of regime change’ by the US and Israel was ‘unacceptable’.
China is ‘highly concerned’ the ‘situation in the Middle East could be pushed into a dangerous abyss’, Wang told Lavrov, according to Xinhua.
‘The international community must send a definite and clear message opposing the world’s regression to the law of the jungle,’ Wang said.
Beijing has urged its citizens in Iran to evacuate the country ‘as soon as possible’.
Reiterating those calls Sunday, the foreign ministry said Chinese passport holders could leave Iran on visa-free land routes into Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey.
North Korea has also joined the chorus of condemnation, with Pyongyang declaring the US-Israeli operation as an ‘illegal act of aggression’ which revealed Washington’s ‘gangster-like’ nature.
The strikes ‘constitute a thoroughly illegal act of aggression and the most vile form of violation of sovereignty in their nature’, a spokesperson for the North’s foreign ministry said.
