“Seeing the images of the crime of separating thousands of children from their mothers in America makes a person exasperated,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, according to his website. “But the Americans separate the children from the immigrant parents with complete maliciousness.”

Khamenei regularly denounces U.S. government actions and has stepped up criticism after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from an agreement last month that gave Iran some relief from international sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.