TEHRAN: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said on Sunday that legal cases must be pursued in domestic and international courts against the US and Israel over “child killings and war crimes” in Iran.

Mojtaba, who has not appeared publicly since being named as the supreme leader on March 8, made these remarks in his message on the death anniversary of then-Iranian judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti and several key political figures in a bomb blast in 1981.

The message was shared on his official X account.

In his message, Mojtaba stated: “One of the most important legal, judicial issues now affecting the Iranian nation is the pursuit and vindication of their rights that have been violated by the crimes of international criminals, global arrogant powers & aggressors, particularly in the years 1404 and 1405.”

The mention of the two wars is a reference to 12-day Israel-Iran war in 2025 and another one that began on Feb 28.

He added that physical and psychological damages “inflicted on each individual of the Iranian nation in the 2nd and 3rd imposed wars, from child killings and war crimes in Minab and Lamerd to attacks on medical centres, is each a legal file that must be pursued in both domestic and international courts.”

He further stated that from the “murder” of newborns and the elderly to the assassination of his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “each is a file among thousands of major legal cases that must be earnestly pursued in domestic and international courts. What is definite is that these criminals must be seized by the collar and brought to justice for their criminal deeds.”

Mojtaba stated the “confessions, and even brazen boasting, of some leaders of the US-Zionist enemy regarding these crimes, are indisputably an admission of crime, and these effectively pave the way for the vindication of the [Iranian] nation’s rights that have been violated”.

“The investigation of crimes committed during the second imposed war, as well as the third imposed war, and continuously pursuing this matter until a verdict is reached, is entrusted to the competent authorities, and this will in turn serve to prevent the recurrence of such crimes,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2026