An Iranian newspaper linked to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei praised the suspect in a recent Washington, D.C. shooting that killed two people, referring to him as “our dear brother.”

The suspect, allegedly confessed to police and witnesses that he shot Sarah Milgrim, 26, an American from Kansas, and her Israeli boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, 30, “for Palestine . . . for Gaza.”

The newspaper stated, “Our dear brother Elias Rodriguez, who killed two Israelis in the U.S., has founded the Washington Basij,” referencing an Iranian paramilitary group tasked with suppressing dissent against Khamenei.

Hossein Shariatmadari, the hardline editor of Kayhan, inquired, “Any news of our dear brother Elias Rodriguez, who sent two Zionist wild animals in Washington to hell with a bullet?”

The Iranian media’s celebratory tone regarding the murders has shocked many observers.

According to Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Oren Marmorstein, “Iran openly calls for terror attacks against Israel on U.S. soil. Kayhan, the mouthpiece of Supreme Leader Khamenei, praises the attack on Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC — one of whom was an American citizen — calling the killer the founder of the ‘Washington Basij,’ Iran’s brutal militia,” adding, “Unfathomable.”

The editorial in the Khamenei-controlled newspaper appeared as reports surfaced that the Trump administration is considering an interim nuclear agreement with Iran. The Israeli paper cited a senior U.S. official stating the deal would involve Iran halting its pursuit of nuclear weapons in return for limited sanctions relief.

However, the Iranian regime has consistently maintained it would never cease enriching uranium, a process that could lead to the development of a nuclear weapon. The U.S. government has designated Iran as a leading state sponsor of terrorism since the mid-1980s.

Vatan-e-Emrooz, a newspaper affiliated with the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also celebrated the deaths of the two victims, who were employed at the Israeli embassy.

Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told Digital, “These repulsive newspaper articles are a reminder that the Iranian regime is the leading state-sponsor of antisemitism.” He added, “Kayhan in the past has published articles praising Hitler, so the praising of the murder of two Israeli embassy employees, including a Jewish American, should sadly come as no surprise.”

Brodsky cautioned that the media statements demonstrate the regime’s untrustworthiness and urged the Trump administration to exercise caution in negotiations involving sanctions relief in exchange for a pledge to halt nuclear weapons development.

He stated, “The true face of the Islamic Republic is represented by these articles, not its smiling diplomats at the negotiating tables of Oman and Rome.”

Iranian-born Israeli Beni Sabti, an Iran expert and research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, warned Digital that the threat of terror from Iran is also directed at the U.S.

“It’s very important that Americans understand that the terror is also or mostly against them,” he said.

Sabti explained that Vatan-e-Emrooz’s support of the murders suggests “the shooting was revenge by that guy and also in the Islamic tradition that Elias is the prophet Eliyahoo, who killed many infidels, so it’s a kind of phrase that Elias is a man of God when he killed those employees of the embassy.”