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Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Iran will \u201cnever surrender\u201d to the United States, striking a defiant tone in his first remarks since a ceasefire with Israel took hold.
\nKhamenei, 86, claimed victory after 12 days of war, culminating in an Iranian attack on the largest US military base in the Middle East, in Qatar, after the US joined the Israeli assault.
\nKhamenei stated, “The US President [Donald] Trump unveiled the truth and made it clear that Americans won’t be satisfied with anything less than Iran’s surrender… such an event will never happen.” Khamenei\u2019s remarks come two days after a ceasefire halted the war between Iran and Israel \u2013 the foes\u2019 deadliest and most destructive confrontation \u2013 and mark his first public appearance since June 19.
\nAdditionally, the speech comes at a time when US accounts of the extent of the damage caused by US strikes on important Iranian nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan during the conflict are in conflict. US President Donald Trump said the strikes \u201cobliterated\u201d the nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n
But Khamenei said Trump had \u201cexaggerated\u201d the impact of the attacks and said the US \u201cgained nothing from this war,\u201d claiming the US strikes \u201cdid nothing significant\u201d to Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities.
\n\u201cThe Islamic republic won, and in retaliation dealt a severe slap to the face of America,\u201d he said, a reference to Iran\u2019s missile attack targeting the US airbase in Qatar, which caused no casualties.<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera\u2019s Resul Serdar, reporting from Tehran, said Khamenei also focused on the country\u2019s armed forces, to offer them congratulations and counter the claims around the world and in Iran that the army \u201chas received huge blows from the Israeli attacks\u201d.<\/p>\n
While Iranians who fled Tehran during the war have been gradually returning to the city, \u201cthere is a common anxiety among the Iranian people here as well because they believe this was only the first wave of the war,\u201d said Serdar.
\n\u201cMany are questioning the efficiency of Iran\u2019s air defence systems\u201d and feel that Iran could be more vulnerable to a potential future attack from the US and Israel, added Serdar.<\/p>\n
Khamenei said that the Iranian army successfully targeted military and non-military positions, and caused extensive damage in Israel and added that \u201cif Israel attacks us again, they will see a further destruction\u201d, added Serdar.
\nKhamenei said that the country\u2019s nuclear programme remains largely in place \u2013 contrary to US statements, said Serdar.
\n\u201cHe said that most of the sites are still in place and that Iran is going to continue its nuclear programme.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Iran and Israel have claimed victory in the 12-day war, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailing on Tuesday a \u201chistoric victory\u201d for Israel.
\nThe Israeli strikes on Iran killed at least 627 civilians, Tehran\u2019s health ministry said, while official figures indicate Iran\u2019s attacks on Israel killed 28 people.<\/p>\n
A state funeral will be held on Saturday in Tehran for top commanders and nuclear scientists killed in the war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Iran will \u201cnever surrender\u201d to the United States, striking a defiant tone in his first remarks since a ceasefire with Israel took hold. Khamenei, 86, claimed victory after 12 days of war, culminating in an Iranian attack on the largest US military base in the Middle East, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":186147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"yes","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10221280388112155_325455220908133":"","twitter_917774835383787521_917774835383787521":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186146"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186148,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186146\/revisions\/186148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}