The U.S.-Israel campaign to bring down the Islamic government in Tehran is “mission impossible,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday.
Speaking to NBC News, Araghchi said that the joint military effort launched earlier in the day cannot achieve regime change while millions of Iranians support the Islamic Republic.
As recently as Feb. 11, 30 million Iranians took to the streets on the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution to express their support for the people in charge, Tehran’s top diplomat claimed.
“Yes, there are also people who are complaining, but there are strong supports of the regime, the system, at the same time,” he said.
Asked if he could confirm that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was still alive, Araghchi replied, “As far as I know, he is still alive.”
He added that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, the head of the judiciary branch, the speaker of parliament, the head of the national security council and “all high-ranking officials,” were still alive.
“We may have lost one or two commanders, but that is not a big problem,” Araghchi said.
He claimed that “everything is under control,” and that the Americans and Israelis “failed to hit their targets.”
He added that Iran has a “very-well established political structure,” and that past attempts to topple the Islamic regime have failed.
The Israeli defense establishment has assessed that Khamenei was likely killed in the airstrikes on Saturday morning, the country’s Channel 12 broadcaster reported.
The Israel Defense Forces launched “Operation Roaring Lion” to “thoroughly degrade the Iranian terrorist regime and remove existential threats to the State of Israel,” the military said.
The strikes targeted dozens of Iranian military sites as part of a broad, coordinated operation with the United States Armed Forces, the IDF added.
