TEHRAN -- Iran warned the United Nations on Monday of “deep and far-reaching consequences” for those responsible for the martyrdom of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described the attack on the country’s highest authority as a “horrific and criminal act” and a “cowardly terrorist act” carried out as part of “unprovoked Israeli-American aggression.”
“Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is not only the highest official authority of the country, but also a religious figure respected by tens of millions of Muslims across the region and the world,” Araghchi wrote in the letter.
“Such an attack will have deep and far-reaching consequences, for which full responsibility rests exclusively with the perpetrators,” he added.
The strikes, which targeted the Leader on Saturday, represent a significant escalation in the region. Araghchi described them as part of “a new series of aggressive, premeditated, and wholly unjustified acts against the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Iran.
The foreign minister said the targeting
 of a head of state violates fundamental international norms, citing Article 2(4) of the UN Charter which prohibits the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
“Failure to respond decisively to such conduct will not only embolden its perpetrators, but will also inflict lasting and irreparable damage for decades to come upon the foundations of the international legal order,” Araghchi warned.
Heads of state, the minister stressed in the letter, “are inviolable, respected, and immune, a principle essential for the independent discharge of their official duties.” He said the attack “establishes a dangerous precedent that strikes at the core norms governing state sovereignty and civilized conduct among nations.”
Araghchi stated that the attack was carried out “in blatant disregard of binding principles of international law and customary international law, including those enshrined in the 1973 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons.”
He asserted that the incident “engages the international responsibility of the relevant offending states and also entails the individual criminal responsibility of the President of the United States, the so-called prime minister of the Israeli regime, and all persons involved in the planning, ordering, authorizing, perpetrating, or otherwise aiding and abetting this criminal act.”
Despite the attack, the foreign minister emphasized Iran’s right to respond, stating the aggression “in no way negates the inherent and legitimate right of the Islamic Republic of Iran to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and people in full conformity with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations.”