❗️Israeli politician says assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was strategic mistake

Yair Golan, leader of Israel’s Democrats party, has called the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during the opening US-Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February a strategic mistake, arguing that the killing did not serve Israel’s interests.

"I think, unequivocally, the elimination of Khamenei, the father, was a mistake, not because he didn’t deserve to die, only because it doesn’t serve the interests of the State of Israel," Golan said.

Khamenei was assassinated alongside members of his family, including a grandchild, and several senior Iranian officials, in the opening strikes of the US-Israeli war, and was succeeded by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei.

Golan also dismissed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated goal of toppling the Islamic Republic as "unrealistic."

The elder Khamenei had issued a religious ruling in 2003 prohibiting nuclear weapons, arguing that they violated Islamic principles.