A senior Iranian official said Tuesday that the country’s new supreme leader had rejected de-escalation proposals through intermediaries, demanding that Israel and the U.S. first be “brought to their knees,” as Israel said it had killed Iran’s security chief in a fresh escalation.
The senior official, who asked not to be identified, said two intermediary countries had conveyed proposals to Iran's Foreign Ministry for "reducing tensions or ceasefire with the United States." The official did not give further details of the proposals or the intermediaries.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who had held his first foreign policy session since being named supreme leader, had responded that it was not "the right time for peace until the United States and Israel are brought to their knees, accept defeat, and pay compensation," the official said.
He did not clarify whether Khamenei, who has not yet been pictured since being named last week to replace his slain father, had attended the meeting in person or remotely.
The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is now in its third week, with at least 2,000 people killed and no end in sight.
