TEHRAN: Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday that the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US and Israeli strikes was a “declaration of war against Muslims.”
“The assassination of the highest political authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a prominent leader of Shiism worldwide … is perceived as an open declaration of war against Muslims, and particularly against Shiites, everywhere in the world,” Pezeshkian said in a statement carried by state TV.
Pezeshkian said that avenging the killing of the supreme leader was a right and obligation of the Islamic republic.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran considers it its legitimate duty and right to avenge the perpetrators and masterminds of this historic crime,” said Pezeshkian.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah vowed Sunday to confront the United States and Israel over their strikes on the group’s key backer Iran.
“We will undertake our duty of confronting the aggression” of the US and Israel, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said in a statement, adding that they would not leave “the field of honor and resistance.”