Putin Quiet on Targeting Iran Leader
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday refused to discuss the possibility that Israel and the United States would assassinate Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying the Iranian people were consolidating around the leadership in Tehran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has openly speculated that an Israeli military strike could lead to regime change in Iran while US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US knows where Khamenei is "hiding" but that Washington would not kill him "for now".
Asked what his reaction would be if Israel actually killed Khamenei with the help of the United States, Putin said: "I don't even want to discuss this possibility. I don't want to."
When pressed, Putin said he had heard statements about the possibility of Khamenei being assassinated but that he did not want to discuss it. "We see that today in Iran, with all the complexity of the internal political processes that are taking place there... that there is a consolidation of society around the political leadership of the country," Putin told senior news agency editors in the northern Russian city of St Petersburg. Putin said all sides should find a way to end hostilities in a way that guarantees Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy and Israel's right to the Jewish state's unconditional security.
Putin spoke as Trump left the world wondering whether the U.S. would join Israel's bombing of Iranian nuclear and missile sites and as residents of the Iranian capital streamed out of the city for a sixth day of airstrikes.
Putin said he had been in touch with Trump and Netanyahu, and that he had conveyed Moscow's ideas on resolving the conflict while ensuring Iran's continued access to civilian nuclear energy.
Source: Reuters
