Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed victory over Israel on Thursday and said Iran had “delivered a hand slap to America’s face,” as he re-emerged after taking shelter in a secret location.
Iran’s supreme leader made the comments during a televised speech and warned that any future aggression against Iran would come at a great cost. He hadn’t been seen in public since Israel attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and targeted top military commanders and scientists beginning June 13.
Following a massive attack by the U.S. on June 22 that hit the nuclear sites with bunker-buster bombs, U.S. President Donald Trump was able to help negotiate a ceasefire that came into effect on Tuesday.
Before the ceasefire, Iran had responded to the U.S. intervention by sending ballistic missiles in the direction of the U.S. military base in Qatar, though it appeared the Americans were given advance notice of the volley. No deaths or injuries were reported by U.S. or Qatari officials.
“The fact that the Islamic Republic has access to important American centres in the region and can take action against them whenever it deems necessary is not a small incident, it is a major incident, and this incident can be repeated in the future if an attack is made,” said Khamenei.
Trump cabinet officials including U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth are set to brief U.S. senators on the strikes on Thursday. Hegseth met with reporters first and said he was unaware of any intelligence suggesting Iran had moved any of its highly enriched uranium in order to shield it ahead of the weekend strikes.
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Fordow bombs were on target: Pentagon official
Gen. Dan Caine, the joint chiefs of staff chairman, responding to a reporter question, said he had not faced political pressure from officials in the Trump administration to tailor his initial assessments of the strikes — and added that he wouldn’t agree to such a request.
Caine’s comment came after the administration took umbrage after an intelligence report was leaked to the media. The report, slammed by Trump and top officials, suggested that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months.
“We don’t grade our own homework, the intelligence community does,” Caine said on Thursday.
Caine said six bombs targeting the ventilation shafts of Iran’s Fordow enrichment site were on target. On Sunday, Caine said it was “far too early” to assess the damage resulting from the strikes.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe, in a statement late Wednesday, said that the U.S. airstrikes had “severely damaged” Iran’s nuclear program, but he stopped short of declaring that the program had been destroyed. The agency confirmed a “body of credible evidence” that several key Iranian facilities were destroyed and would take years to rebuild, he said.
Israel’s nuclear agency assessed the strikes had “set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.” The White House has also circulated the Israeli assessment.
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, has dismissed what he called the “hourglass approach” of assessing damage to Iran’s nuclear program in terms of months needed to rebuild, saying there needs to be a sustainable long-term solution.
“In any case, the technological knowledge is there and the industrial capacity is there. That, no one can deny. So we need to work together with them,” he said.
The statements come as anxious Iranians and Israelis sought to resume normal life after 12 days of the most intense confrontation ever between the two foes and a ceasefire that took effect Tuesday.
Iranian authorities said 627 people were killed and nearly 5,000 injured in Iran, where the extent of the damage could not be independently confirmed because of tight restrictions on media. Twenty-eight people have been killed in Israel from Iranian strikes.
France confirms help defending Israel
While the U.S. efforts on behalf of Israel have been well established, defence minister Sébastien Lecornu outlined France’s contribution late on Wednesday.
“I can confirm that the French army intercepted less than 10 drones in the last few days during the different military operations conducted by the Islamic Republic of Iran against Israel, either by ground-to-air systems or via our Rafale fighter jets,” Lecornu said during a parliamentary debate on the situation in the Middle East.
U.S. President Donald Trump closed the NATO summit by praising his own intervention in the Israel-Iran conflict, and for U.S. airstrikes on Iran. He promised to provide proof that Iran’s nuclear program was destroyed at a news conference on Thursday.
Lecornu said Iran had launched some 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones toward Israel during the 12-day conflict.
Israel’s demonstration that it could target Iran’s senior leadership seemingly at will posed perhaps the biggest challenge yet for Iran’s clerical rulers, at a critical juncture when they must find a successor for Khamenei, now 86 and in power for 36 years.
Iran’s authorities moved swiftly to demonstrate their control before Khamenei’s speech. The judiciary announced the execution of three men on Wednesday convicted of collaborating with Israel’s Mossad spy agency and smuggling equipment used in an assassination.
Iran had arrested 700 people accused of ties with Israel during the conflict, the state-affiliated Nournews reported.
Trump told to butt out of Netanyahu’s troubles
During the war, both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump publicly suggested that it could end with the toppling of Iran’s entire system of clerical rule, established in its 1979 revolution.
But after the ceasefire, Trump said he did not want to see “regime change” in Iran, which he said would bring chaos at a time when he wanted the situation to settle down.
Meanwhile, Trump on social media late Wednesday called for Israel to pardon Netanyahu or cancel his corruption trial.
Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 in Israel on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust — all of which the prime minister denies. The trial began in 2020 and involves three criminal cases. He has pleaded not guilty and chafed at his regular appearances to give testimony, arguing they’ve been an undue burden as he leads in a time of war.
Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid said Trump should keep out of the matter.
“With all due respect and gratitude to the president of the United States, he’s not supposed to intervene in a legal process of an independent state,” Lapid said.
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