Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei has retweeted an old post from 2022 in response to the Oval Office showdown between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The post put up on March 1, 2022, criticises Ukraine's reliance on the United States and its current state.
"The first lesson from the situation in Ukraine is that Western support for countries and governments that are their puppets is a mirage," the post on Ali Khamenei's X account quotes him as saying in Ukrainian. "All governments must understand this. Those governments relying on the US and Europe should look at the current situation in Ukraine," the post reads.
Перший урок із ситуації в Україні полягає в тому, що підтримка західних держав країн і урядів, які є їхніми маріонетками, — це міраж. Це повинні зрозуміти всі уряди. Ті уряди, які покладаються на США та Європу, нехай подивляться на сьогоднішнє становище України.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) March 1, 2025
1 березня 2022 р
His post came hours after Trump rattled the world berating the Ukrainian leader for not being grateful and "gambling with World War III."
Many Iranian hardliners too cited the Oval Office episode to validate Khamenei's statement, made in February, where he stated that holding talks with it wouldn't Trump administration would not be "wise, expedient, or dignified". This was a warning to those who doubted Iran's stance.
"Can an Iranian even imagine our president in Zelensky’s position?" Abdollah Ganji, a former editor of the IRGC-linked Javan newspaper, wrote in an X post.
Khamenei’s political adviser and former secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, also recalled a 2019 meeting the Supreme Leader had with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe where Khamenei refused to accept a message Abe was delivering from Trump.
Reformist commentator Fayyaz Zahed too condemned Trump’s public rebuke of Zelenskyy, calling it "a return to the era of imperialism." "The real America is what we are witnessing," he added.
However, some felt it was time Iran engaged in talks with the US before it lost all cards to play. "The humiliating exchange between Zelensky and Trump proved that negotiations must happen while there are still cards left to play," said Diako Hosseini, a political commentator and deputy chairman of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, in an X post. "One should never enter talks under any other circumstances."
