Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Pawan Khera on Sunday took a shot at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not condemning US President Donald Trump's latest “provocative and irresponsible” statement on Iran during slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's funeral.
Khera's remarks came in response to Trump's statement in which he said that he could have taken out the country's senior leadership “all in one shot” while they were gathered for Khamenei's funeral in Tehran.
Khera called PM Modi “compromised” and his government incapable of condemning “reckless insinuations of violence by their masters in the United States”.
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The Congress leader noted that around 10 million people, including a delegation from India, have attended the Ayatollah's funeral.
“In this context, President Donald Trump's provocative and irresponsible threats are deeply detrimental to the peace process in West Asia. What is disturbing for us is that our Compromised PM and the government he leads are incapable of summoning the moral courage to condemn such reckless insinuations of violence by their masters in the United States,” Khera said in a post on X.
{{/usCountry}}“In this context, President Donald Trump's provocative and irresponsible threats are deeply detrimental to the peace process in West Asia. What is disturbing for us is that our Compromised PM and the government he leads are incapable of summoning the moral courage to condemn such reckless insinuations of violence by their masters in the United States,” Khera said in a post on X.
{{/usCountry}}Trump's ‘one shot’ remark
Khera made the remarks after Trump's statement where referred to the large funeral gathering in Tehran and suggested the gathering presented a military opportunity. However, he said such a move was ruled out because diplomatic efforts were continuing.
"They are all there. One shot [and we can take them all out], but we are not going to do that because then we would have nobody to negotiate with," he told US media outlet Axios.
Trump also said he was surprised to see so many people mourning Khamenei, as he believed many Iranians were against him. "Maybe it's fake tears," the outlet quoted him as saying.
Iran hit back at Trump with the Iranian embassy in Armenia said the US, which celebrated the 250th anniversary of its independence on July 4, could never understand the massive mourning over Khamenei's death because it “neither has civilisation, history, nor honour”.
“People can be killed, but ideals cannot. You killed Ayatollah Khamenei, but in reality, you broke a perfume bottle whose scent spread everyplace. You don't understand these things because you have neither civilisation, nor history, nor honor,” the Iranian embassy said.
Khamenei's funeral, which comes over four months after his death in US-Israeli strikes, has drawn massive crowds with dignitaries from nearly 100 countries attending the ceremony in Tehran. The ceremony began on July 3 and will end with his burial in his hometwon Mashhad at the Imam Reza shrine on July 9. The funeral procession will move through multiple cities in Iran as well as Iraq – Najaf and Karbala. The security arrangements have been heightened in view of the massive crowds for the slain leader's funeral.