Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has bashed Foreign Minister Javad Zarif over the leaked audiotape on internal power struggles a week ago.
Khamenei, during a live speech, reprimanded Javad Zarif saying, “Some of these remarks are a repeat of hostile remarks of our enemies, repeating America’s rhetoric.”
He said he was “surprised and sorry” to hear Zarif’s comments on late Soleimani’s death.
He also referred to the escalated tensions between the United States (US) and Iran, saying: “That was why former President Donald Trump ordered Soleimani’s assassination via a drone strike in January 2020 in Baghdad.”
“We shouldn’t say things that would convey the meaning that we are repeating what they are saying, whether on the Quds Force or on martyr Soleimani,” the supreme leader said.
The US and Iran have been at war for decades, but tensions increased during President Donald Trump’s administration.
Trump had ordered a US airstrike in 2020 in Iraq that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s foreign operations arm.
However, Javad Zarif’s remarks in the leaked audio over the killing of Soleimani has sparked fury among conservatives.