TEHRAN -- Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani said Wednesday the United States will have to pay a "heavy price" for killing the country's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Writing on social media platform X, Larijani said US President Donald Trump dragged the American people into an "unjust" war with Iran.

He added, "Now he must calculate: with over 500 American soldiers killed in just the past few days, does America still come first — or Israel?"

Khamenei, along with some of the leader's family members, as well as several senior Iranian military commanders, was killed on Saturday during the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Iran responded through waves of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and US assets across the Middle East.