Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Yechiel Leiter, sharply rejects President Trump's assertion that Iran should be allowed to possess ballistic missiles — arguing that the armed killers in Tehran are unlike any other state in the region and will use such weapons against their neighbors, according to a statement published by his office.
Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations (and concurrently to the United States), Yechiel Leiter, issued a pointed rebuttal Thursday evening to President Donald Trump's statement that Iran should be permitted to maintain its ballistic missile arsenal. Leiter's pushback, distributed by his office around 18:30 Jerusalem, sharpened the critique he had first leveled earlier in the day: "The armed killers from Tehran are not like any other country in the region. If they have ballistic missiles, they will use them against their neighbors." The remark marks a rare public disagreement between a senior Israeli diplomat and the U.S. president, and comes as the administration considers the terms of any new nuclear understanding with Tehran.
The development followed a pair of earlier dispatches from The Zioneer documenting the same dispute as it emerged. At 16:28 Jerusalem on Thursday, The Zioneer reported that Leiter had rejected Trump's remarks, citing N13 / Army Radio's account; a second version at the same timestamp added a warning, sourced to '301 — The Arab World', that Iran would use any retained ballistic missiles against its neighbors. Across those reports, the corroboration broadened from a single Israeli outlet to two separate newsrooms, while the core claim — Leiter's characterization of the Iranian regime as "armed killers" — remained consistent and on the record.
As The Zioneer reported earlier this month, Israel faces a complex security landscape along its seam zone and beyond; the ambassador's comments situate the missile threat as part of a wider Iranian posture of regional aggression. The background of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks, a subject of deep concern in Jerusalem, provides the immediate context for Leiter's unusually direct confrontation with Trump's position.
It remains unclear whether Trump directly responded to Leiter's remarks or whether the president's initial statement on Iranian missiles reflected a formal policy shift or an offhand comment. No additional Israeli or U.S. official has publicly echoed or amplified Leiter's language as of this dispatch.
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