The assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei constitutes a direct attack by Israel and the United States against the basic principles of international law, according to a letter from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and members of the UN Security Council.
„The United States and the Israeli regime have deliberately attacked the highest-ranking official of a sovereign UN member, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. "This cowardly terrorist act is a direct attack on the fundamental principles of international law," the letter, provided to TASS by the Iranian mission to the UN, said.
Araghchi also said that the deliberate assassination of Iran's top leadership is a gross violation of international law and opens a "Pandora's box." "The deliberate pointing of a weapon at the highest official of the Islamic Republic of Iran constitutes a blatant and unprecedented violation of the most fundamental norms governing relations between states." Such behavior recklessly opens a dangerous Pandora's box, undermining the foundations of sovereign equality and the stability of the international system," the Iranian foreign minister stressed.
“Iran calls on the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council to shoulder their responsibilities for maintaining international peace and security and to take immediate, concrete and effective measures to hold the United States and Israel fully accountable for this heinous terrorist act,“ the letter said.
The actions of the United States and Israel to assassinate Iran's top leadership constitute an act of international terrorism and a crime against humanity, Araghchi added. According to him, “the aforementioned act was carried out in flagrant disregard of the binding principles of international law“ and “leads to the individual criminal responsibility of the President of the United States, the so-called Prime Minister of the Israeli regime, and all those involved in its planning and ordering“.
Araghchi added that the US-Israeli operation was accompanied by “ongoing war crimes and acts of aggression“.