War in Ukraine: Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei judges Kiev “victim” of American policy


Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday (March 1) accused Washington of being behind the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and called for an end to the war that broke out on March 24. last February.

“The Ukrainian crisis has its roots in the policies of the United States and the West,” the Iranian leader said in a televised speech.

Mr. Khamenei accused the “mafia regime” of the United States of creating many crises in the world. According to him, Ukraine is a “victim” of American policy, which has dragged it into its current situation. During his speech, Mr. Khamenei called for sparing the lives of civilians, as well as their infrastructure: “we are in favor of an immediate end to the war in Ukraine”.

Since the start of the offensive under the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, more than 350 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, including 14 children, according to Kiev.

A 40-year-old conflict

American-Iranian relations have been broken since April 1980, only a few months after the fall of the Shah and the occupation of the American embassy.

The two sworn enemies are currently engaged in indirect negotiations in Vienna to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, from which Washington unilaterally withdrew in 2018. The death of the powerful general Ghassem Soleimani, killed during of an American bombardment on January 3, 2020 in Baghdad, will not have helped matters in this battle between the two countries.

For the time being, Iran has still not taken any real positions or decided to provide any assistance to Kiev, while the American government, for its part, has sent military aid amounting to 350 million dollars. (313 million euros), to fight the Russian invasion.





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