Iranian Leader Says US, European Nations 'Root Cause' of Mideast Conflict

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that the United States and some European nations are responsible for the turmoil in the Middle East, and that the people of the region will enjoy peaceful coexistence only after the interlopers leave.

Khamenei—who has led the Islamist theocracy since 1989—spoke to a group of scientists and scholars in Tehran on Wednesday, one day after Iran retaliated for recent Israeli assassinations of Iranian, Hezbollah, and Hamas leaders by firing around 200 missiles into Israel in a largely ineffective attack.

"In our region, the root cause of problems, which leads to conflicts, wars, concerns and hostilities and such like, results from the presence of the same people who claim to advocate peace and tranquility in the region; that is America and some European countries," the 85-year-old Shia cleric said, according to Iranian state broadcaster Press TV.

"If they get themselves out of this region, beyond a shadow of a doubt these conflicts, these wars, these clashes will come to a complete halt, and the countries of the region will be able to govern themselves, govern their region, and live together in peace, blessing, and prosperity," Khamenei added.

British intervention in what was then the Persian Empire started in the 19th century. In the 20th century, Britain and the United States engineered a coup in Iran that restored and perpetuated a monarchy that ruled until overthrown and replaced by the current regime in the late 1970s. Since then, the U.S. has also supported efforts to overthrow the Iranian government, including by training anti-regime militants.

Britain opened up Palestine for Zionist colonization, but later ended Jewish immigration as Jews usurped the local Arab population and carried out many deadly terror attacks against both British occupiers and Palestinians. Following the establishment of the modern state of Israel—largely through ethnic cleansing of Arabs in the 1940s—the United States supported an expansionist Israel with hundreds of billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic cover, even as it now wages a war on the Gaza Strip for which it is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Khamenei had two additional words of advice for U.S. and European meddlers: "Get lost."

The supreme leader's speech came amid fears of a wider Middle East war. While Iran and Hezbollah have shown restraint in responding to Israeli aggression, Israel has escalated its war, which has left more than 148,000 Palestinians dead, injured, or missing in Gaza, where millions more people have been forcibly displaced, starved, and sickened since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack. Israeli forces have also killed or wounded thousands more people in Lebanon, which Israeli ground troops invaded this week.

The United States, as well as the United Kingdom and other European nations, have supported Israel with billions of dollars worth of weapons and, in the case of the U.S., diplomatic cover including multiple vetoes of United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolutions.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday condemned Israel's assault on Gaza as "the most deadly and destructive military campaign in my years" leading the world body.

Guterres, who was addressing the Security Council, also said that he "strongly" condemned Tuesday's "massive missile attack by Iran on Israel," adding that such action does not "seem to support the cause of the Palestinian people or reduce their suffering."

Falsely claiming that Guterres failed to "mention Iran by name" or "unequivocally condemn" the Iranian attack, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday declared the U.N. leader "persona non grata" in Israel and banned him from entering the country.