Iranian foreign minister decries Israeli strikes that killed top officials: ‘Something colder’

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned recent Israeli strikes that killed several Iranian leaders on Wednesday. 

“What is unfolding before our eyes is not hypocrisy,” the Iranian official wrote in a statement posted on the social platform X. 

“Hypocrisy implies shame,” he continued. “This is something colder: a calculated moral collapse—where rules exist only for adversaries, and impunity is reserved for allies.”

The Iranian regime vowed retaliation after Israeli strikes this week killed Iranian Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani, Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib and the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s Basij force, Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani. 

Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei expressed “deep sorrow” for the death of Larijani and threatened a military response. 

“Let the adversaries of Islam know that shedding the blood of such people at the foot of the mighty tree of the Islamic system will only make it stronger,” he wrote on X. “And surely, every drop of blood has its due retribution that the criminal murderers of these martyrs will soon have to pay.”

The Iranian military has launched retaliatory strikes on military bases and oil refineries in the Gulf states after the U.S. and Israel initiated a joint attack on the country at the end of February. 

Araghchi called on foreign leaders to hold Israel accountable for their actions, accusing the country’s leadership of having “no regard for the repercussions of the normalization of its heinous methods of terror.”

“But the international community should not disregard that recklessness; as for every action there will inevitably and always be a reaction,” he continued.

Several European leaders have criticized the ongoing strikes, urging a return to the negotiating table to broker a new nuclear deal. 

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday his government is “seeking transatlantic common ground.”

“That’s why I have always made it clear: We share the USA’s important goals,” he wrote on X.

“But we must not—and we will not—shy away from telling our partners honestly where we see things differently and where we have different interests,” the German leader continued. “Such a partnership must be able to withstand that.”

Trump criticized NATO allies on Tuesday in a lengthy Truth Social post over their reluctance to provide assistance to Israel and the U.S. as part of this military effort. 

“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO ‘Allies’ that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump said.

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