Tehran: Hours after the United States and Israel struck deep into Iran with the aim of removing the Islamic regime, speculation emerged about the whereabouts of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Israeli television reported that their assessment was that the Supreme Leader was likely killed in the raid.
However, the Iranians issued a quick denial. The representative of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in India, Dr. Abdul Majeed Hakim Elahi, said that the Supreme Leader is in good health and is never afraid of America or any other people.. He will continue with his dignity and wisdom, and I hope that we will win this war.
“All high-level officials are alive… We are dealing with this situation, and everything is fine,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in an interview with NBC News.
Iranian Al-Alam TV reported that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will speak to the Iranian people soon.
Meanwhile, the representative of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran in India, Dr. Abdul Majeed Hakim Elahi, condemned the US-Israel-led aggression.
He said: “We were conducting negotiations and discussions to reach a diplomatic outcome. We were thinking that very soon we would reach a very good statement from Iran and the United States of America… But unfortunately, today, during the last month, the month of Ramadan, we were attacked by Israel and the United States of America against Iran. First, they started attacking civilians. They announced that they attacked some government countries and also a government building, but that is not true, they attacked civilians.”
He added, “We condemn this aggression against Iran, this attack on Iran… We hope that international law and the United Nations will stop this war against Iran.”
In Iran, IRNA news agency reported that officials converted a major highway linking the capital to northern Iran into a one-way road to accommodate heavy external traffic. The agency reported that heavy traffic was heading north out of the capital.
In northern Tehran, supermarkets saw a wave of customers searching for bread and bottled water. However, supply was limited. Long queues were also observed in front of gas stations throughout the city.
State television showed footage from one of the highways in Tehran, the Soleimani Highway, where very heavy traffic was seen on the roads heading from west to east.
Earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday unequivocally condemned the military escalation in the Middle East, saying that the “use of force” by the United States and Israel and the “subsequent retaliation” by Iran undermined international peace and security.
While invoking the UN Charter, the Secretary-General said that the main document guiding the international body clearly prohibits “the threat to use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.”
