‘Confused clown’: Zelensky's condemnation of protest crackdown draws furious tirade from Iranian FM
Zelensky: "The protests in Iran drowned in blood. What will Iran become after this bloodshed? If the regime survives, it sends a clear signal to every bully: kill enough people, and you stay in power"
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky became on Friday the object of a furious tirade from Iran’s top diplomat after condemning the Islamic Republic's deadly crackdown on protesters.
With Ukraine embroiled in a war for its survival against Russia since 2022, Zelensky said in a speech at the World Economic Forum on Thursday that should Iran’s clerical leadership be allowed to remain in power, it would boost and legitimize tyrants everywhere.
"There was so much talk about the protests in Iran — but they drowned in blood. The world has not helped enough the Iranian people, it has stood aside," he said. "What will Iran become after this bloodshed? If the regime survives, it sends a clear signal to every bully — kill enough people, and you stay in power."
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi weighed in with bilious rage in an English-language post on the X platform, charging the Ukrainian president had been “rinsing American and European taxpayers to fill the pockets of his corrupt generals.”
https://x.com/i/web/status/2014554267323887785
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Zelensky "openly and unashamedly calls for unlawful U.S. aggression against Iran," Araghchi fumed, taking a swipe at the Ukrainian president's previous career as a comic actor: “The world has had enough of Confused Clowns, Mr. Zelensky.”
“Unlike your foreign-backed and mercenary-infested military, we Iranians know how to defend ourselves and have no need to beg foreigners for help,” he added.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is a close ally of the Islamic regime in Iran under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and last week held telephone talks with President Masoud Pezeshkian, with both sides agreeing to further boost bilateral ties.