Iran could be more dangerous than ever after Khamenei’s death, says Israeli ambassador

OTTAWA — Israel’s top diplomat in Canada says the elimination of Iran’s head of state in coordinated U.S.-Israeli airstrikes doesn’t necessarily mean the country’s Islamist regime is critically compromised, in fact, he says it could now be more dangerous than ever.

“The Iranian regime has manufactured a system of power that has been able to sustain itself for 45 years and to unleash death and destruction on its own people,” Israeli Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed told National Post in an exclusive interview on Sunday.

Moed said it was “hard to tell” how the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s long-serving autocrat, would affect the regime’s trajectory.

“What we’ve been trying to do is eliminate the head of the snake so that, if the Iranian people choose to change, this is the opportunity they have to be liberated from the terrorist regime,” said Moed.

Khamenei, who became the second Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1989, was killed in the early hours of Sunday morning amid an aerial bombardment of his compound in Tehran. Multiple members of his family and inner circle were also killed in the assault.

Moed stressed the danger of the current moment, noting that Iran has lashed out with strikes on Israel, including a missile attack outside Jerusalem that killed nine people, and aerial attacks in other parts of the region like Dubai and Cyprus.

“We’re seeing, evidently, that this regime’s goals are very, very lethal and destructive to Israel and the region,” said Moed.

He said that the Iranian regime’s indiscriminate attacks over the past 48 hours underscore why it must never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

Moed applauded the statement Prime Minister Mark Carney put out on Saturday, expressing unequivocal support for the U.S. intervention in Iran, and said Canada has been “strong” on Iran as G7 President, pointing to a joint statement at the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis, Alta., calling on the Iranian regime to end its nuclear program.

He said that Canada and other middle powers must help stamp out the regime’s remaining international influence, including its financial networks supporting terror activities across the globe.

“(Canada) has sanctioned a very large number of organizations and entities tied to the regime, which is very, very important. And I think that we need to take this a step further and encourage the international community to follow suit,” said Moed.

National Post

rmohamed@postmedia.com

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