China, Russia, North Korea and Hamas condemn killing of Iran’s Khamenei

While many Western leaders welcomed news on Sunday that Iran’s notorious strongman Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed an Israeli airstrike, authoritarian states like China, Russia and North Korea condemned the news, as did Iranian proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

China said Sunday it “strongly condemns” the United States and Israel’s killing of Khamenei, calling again for a halt to military actions.

The killing was “a serious violation of Iran’s sovereignty and security, a trampling on the aims and principles of the UN Charter and the basic norms of international relations,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“China firmly opposes and strongly condemns this,” it added, calling for an “immediate halting of military operations.”

The condemnation came just after Chinese state media reported a phone call between Beijing’s top diplomat Wang Yi and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

During the conversation, which state news agency Xinhua said was initiated by Lavrov, Wang said that the “blatant killing of a sovereign leader and the incitement of regime change” by the United States and Israel was “unacceptable.”

China is “highly concerned” that the “situation in the Middle East could be pushed into a dangerous abyss,” Wang told Lavrov, according to Xinhua.

“The international community must send a definite and clear message opposing the world’s regression to the law of the jungle,” Wang said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday called the killing “a cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law.”

He expressed his “deep condolences in connection with the murder of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Sayyed Ali Khamenei, and members of his family,” in a letter to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

North Korea condemned the attack as an “illegal act of aggression.”

Pyongyang said the military actions showed the “shameless and gangster-like conduct” of the two allies, who it said had chosen to “abuse military force to fulfill their selfish and hegemonic ambitions.”

The Hamas terror group mourned “the passing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He provided all forms of political, diplomatic and military support to our people, our cause, and our resistance,” Hamas said in a statement.

“The US and the fascist occupation government [a reference to Israel] bear full responsibility for this blatant aggression and heinous crime against the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as for its serious repercussions on the security and stability of the region.”

Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz a-dine Al-Qassam Brigades, described Khamenei as the “main supporter of the Resistance Axis and its mujahideen.”

“All the support the Islamic Republic has provided over decades to our people and our resistance… was delivered by his direct decision and under his full supervision,” the Brigades said in a separate statement.

“This substantial support has been a key factor in the development of the resistance and its tactics, culminating in the remarkable achievements” during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the group added. That devastating attack, in which some 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 251 were abducted, sparked a two-year was in Gaza.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group called the killing of Khamenei a “war crime” by the US and Israel in a “treacherous and malicious attack.”

Hezbollah terror group chief Naim Qassem called on mosques to recite the Quran and organize mourning ceremonies to mark Khamenei’s death, both in the Beirut suburb and other areas of Lebanon where the group wields influence.

Qassem said Sunday that the assassination of Khamenei and other Iranian officials was “the height of crime.”