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The US and Israel's strategy of assassinating religious, political and military leaders in Iran sets a dangerous precedent that could lead to members of their own administrations being targeted, Peter Hitchens has argued.
Speaking on the latest Alas Vine & Hitchens podcast, the longstanding Mail on Sunday columnist said that the policy of taking out foreign rulers could easily be turned on Western nations.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated in an Israeli missile strike on his home on February 28, 2026.
The Supreme Leader's daughter, granddaughter, daughter-in-law and son-in-law were also killed in the bombardment on his home in Tehran, with a number of other Iranian officials killed over the following month.
While many Iranians celebrated in the streets following the Ayatollah's death, a number of analysts have questioned the tactical shrewdness of forcibly removing an elderly leader who was already facing widespread protests in Iran and turning him into a martyr figure.
'Just imagine, if you would, ten years hence, the Western nations are at war with China over Taiwan, not a totally impossible scenario,' he said on the podcast.
'And one morning, shortly after this war begins, the President of the United States is sitting in the Oval Office in the White House, and he and his entire entourage are killed by a Chinese hypersonic missile.'
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's former Supreme Leader, was assassinated in an Israeli missile strike on February 28, 2026 at the age of 86
Israel have not been coy about their policy of assassination, with the Prime Minister's office even releasing an image of Benjamin Netanyahu ordering the death of senior Iranian figures
However, Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens has argued that the policy of assassinating leaders could lead to a nightmare scenario in which a superpower like China seeks to take out a US President
Hitchens argues that the US and its allies risk squandering the moral upper-hand if continue to stoop to such methods.
'Whatever moral advantage we may have had, we've sacrificed by using these methods and left it open to any of our future enemies when they develop the same capacity to do the same to us,' he said.
In the event of an attack on US political figures by a foreign power, the mhttps://podfollow.com/alasedia would be in outcry, Hitchens said.
'I have no doubt that the media of the Western countries would be full of horrifying pictures of the carnage and the ruins, and everybody would go on the television, and indeed on social media, to say what a despicable acts this was,' he added.
'I'm pretty certain they'd call it cowardice, and almost certainly they call it barbaric. In my view, they'd be right.
'But the Chinese would would turn around and say, "Well, hang on a minute. You do this too. Why do you complain?"'
While Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was the grand prize for the US and Israeli forces, a spate of other political, religious and military figures have also been targeted in the last month.
Hours after the death of Khamenei, Iran’s feared national security chief Ali Larijani, thought by many to have been the de facto leader of the country and the architect of its terror, posted a message on social media, swearing revenge.
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However, he too was soon assassinated in a secretive operation after Israeli authorities received intelligence that he would travel to one of his hideout apartments near Tehran alongside his son, as opposed to his normal residence.
On Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's command, precise strikes were launched and the mission was soon complete, with one Israeli security source confidently telling Channel 12 in the aftermath: 'There is no way he survived this attack.'
Israel have not been coy about their policy of assassination, with the Prime Minister's office even releasing an image of the PM ordering the death of senior Iranian figures.
While a Chinese attack on the US president remains a speculative scenario for the time being, the idea of foreign nations seeking to assassinate foreign political leaders is clearly a prospect many in the Trump administration are already taking seriously.
Speaking after the death of Ali Khamenei, President Trump told ABC News' Jon Karl: 'I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well, I got him first.'
Nor is this fear new in US political circles.
Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani was assassinated on January 3, 2020 by a US drone strike while travelling to meet Iraqi prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a strike ordered by President Trump.
Soleimani was commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), with members of group planning to kill Trump's former National Security Advisor John Bolton in retaliation.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said that Shahram Poursafi, who also goes by the name Mehdi Rezayi, attempted to pay individuals in the United States $300,000 to carry out the murder in Washington, D.C. or Maryland.
