TEHRAN, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi has warned that the attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran and their assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will have "deep and widespread" consequences, the responsibility of which "lies solely with the perpetrators."
He made the remarks in a Sunday letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council, one day after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Tehran and several other Iranian cities, killing the country's top leader, the official news agency IRNA reported.
Araghchi said that in a series of "aggressive, unprovoked and unjustified" attacks against Iran's national sovereignty and territorial integrity on Saturday, the United States and Israel "deliberately" targeted the highest-ranking official of an independent UN member state.
He described the attack as a "cowardly terrorist action" and "a direct attack on the most fundamental principles of international law, including the prohibition of the use of force, the sovereign equality of states, and the inviolability and immunity of heads of state."
Such an action creates "a precarious and unprecedented practice that would target fundamental norms of state sovereignty and civilized behavior among nations" and will cause "dangerous unforeseen problems," he warned.
In the letter, Araghchi also highlighted Iran's "inherent and inalienable" right to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity and people under the UN Charter. ■
