Iran’s UN Envoy Condemns Israeli, US Threat of Assassination of Leader
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations condemned the American and Israeli regime’s threat of assassination of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei as a manifest instance of state terrorism.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and President of the UN Security Council Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett on June 27, Saeed Iravani said the gravity of Israeli and US threats against Ayatollah Khamenei must not be permitted to be diminished or normalized in any manner whatsoever.
What follows is the full text of his letter:
Excellency,
Further to our previous letters dated 13, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23 and 25 June 2025, (S/2025/379-S/2025/387-S/2025/388-S/2025/391-S/2025/401-S/2025/404-S/2025/410), I am writing to categorically reject and strongly condemn the recent unlawful, provocative, and terror-inciting statements made by senior officials of the United States and the Israeli regime, who have openly and repeatedly threatened the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran with assassination.
On 26 June 2025, the Israeli regime's Minister of Defense, in an interview with Israeli media, explicitly threatened Iran's Supreme Leader and revealed the regime's plans for assassination. This outrageous and unlawful statement was issued in clear coordination with similarly inflammatory remarks made by the President of the United States-first on 18 June and again today, 27 June 2025 when he referred to the Supreme Leader as an "easy target”, declared "we are not going to take him out at least not for now," and further claimed he had "prevented Israel or the US Armed Forces from terminating his life.”
Such reckless and deliberate threats by senior officials constitute a serious violation of the Charter of the United Nations, particularly Article 2(4), which unequivocally prohibits both the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State. They also breach well-established principles of international law, including the inviolability of Heads of State, and amount to a clear incitement to state terrorism. Furthermore, the international counter-terrorism conventions and numerous UN resolutions, including that of the UN General Assembly and the Security Council, reaffirm that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations is criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of its motivation or origin.
Of particular concern, these terror inciting statements-issued by criminal officials of the Israeli regime which has launched an unprovoked, large-scale military aggression, in flagrant violation of international law and the UN Charter, against the Islamic Republic of Iran on 13 June 2025, and which possesses a well-documented record of state-sponsored assassinations, extraterritorial terror operations, deliberate armed attacks, including the killing of Iranian officials, nuclear scientists, and civilians, and attacking of civilian infrastructure and peaceful nuclear facilities represent not isolated incidents, but are part of a long-standing, systematic campaign of state terrorism against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Such threats set a dangerous precedent by seeking to normalize assassination as a tool of foreign policy, in blatant contempt for the international legal order. The international community must not remain silent in the face of such clear and escalating violations of international law.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, while reserving its inherent right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, urges the Secretary-General and the Security Council to:
- Condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the threats of assassination made by the Israeli regime and US officials as illegal, irresponsible, and terroristic, in flagrant violation of international law and the UN Charter;
- Remind all parties of their legal obligations to refrain from inciting or supporting acts of terrorism or assassination against officials of other States;
- Take appropriate steps to ensure accountability for these internationally wrongful acts, in accordance with the UN Charter and relevant international instruments on terrorism and state responsibility.
I would be grateful if the present letter and its attachment could be circulated as a document of the Security Council and the General Assembly under the agenda items 84: "The rule of law at the national and international levels" and 110: "Measures to eliminate international terrorism."
Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.
