Iranian president calls revenge a ‘duty’ after killing of Supreme Leader

CAIRO – 1 March 2026: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in recent US-Israeli strikes is a “historic crime,” warning that retaliation is a “duty and legitimate right.”

“The Islamic Republic considers avenging the perpetrators of this historic crime, and those who issued the orders to carry it out, both a duty and a legitimate right, and will pursue this responsibility with full force,” Pezeshkian said, according to Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim.

Pezeshkian mourned Khamenei’s “martyrdom at the hands of the most wretched of criminals,” describing the incident as “the greatest calamity to befall the Islamic world.”