Global leaders called for a quick resolution to the crisis in the Middle East as US allies backed the decision to target Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"Khamenei was responsible for the regime's ballistic missile and nuclear program, support for armed proxies and its brutal acts of violence and intimidation against its own people," Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters Sunday. "His passing will not be mourned."
Judgments about the legality of the weekend strikes on Iran are a question for the US and others directly involved in the action, though Iran's regime posed a real threat to international peace and security, Albanese said. "We hope that the actions that have been taken lead to a swift resolution," he said.
China called for an immediate ceasefire Saturday, before confirmation of Khamenei's death. An end to military operations is necessary to "avoid further escalation of tensions, to resume dialogue and negotiations, and to safeguard peace and stability in the Middle East," a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim called for an "immediate and unconditional cessation of hostilities," and urged the US and Iran to "pursue a diplomatic off-ramp rather than further escalation."
"The Israeli strikes on Iran, and the American military action that has accompanied them, bring the Middle East to the edge of catastrophe," Anwar wrote in a Facebook post Saturday. "Israel's initiation of these strikes was a vile attempt to sabotage ongoing negotiations and to drag other nations into a conflict that could prove impossible to contain."
Singapore Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong warned Saturday that the crisis is likely to affect energy prices and have an impact on countries far away from the Middle East. "You can see how the war starts, but it is very hard to tell how the war will end," he said at an event in Singapore.
Iran's regime had defied the expectations of the international community for decades and lost the support of the country's people, New Zealand's Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Sunday in a statement.
"We join the international community in hoping this crisis ends as quickly as possible," they said. "We call for a resumption of negotiations and adherence to international law -- and we urge the Iranian leadership to seek a negotiated solution."
Australia is in contact with international partners and stressing the "need to avoid, if at all possible, a broader regional escalation," Foreign Minister Penny Wong told reporters Sunday in Adelaide. The nation is not participating in the strikes, she said.