US President Donald Trump on June 27 sharply criticised Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s claim that Iran had won the war against Israel and wrote on the social media network Thuth Social that he had abandoned the idea of easing sanctions against Iran.
Khamenei’s claims, which were aired on television, Trump called “brazen and stupid” and labelled as lies.
“His country has been destroyed, his three sinister nuclear facilities have been destroyed,” Trump wrote about the events of 13 – 24 June, when, following Israel, the US struck Iranian nuclear facilities.
Trump went on to write that the ayatollah actually owed him his life: “I knew exactly where he was hiding and did not allow Israel or the US military – the best and strongest in the world – to end his life.” “I saved him from a horrible and shameful death,” Trump claims, indicating that he is not asking for personal thanks for this. However, the US president said that after Khamenei’s statements full of “anger, hatred and disgust”, he abandoned the idea of easing sanctions against Iran, according to the US president. According to the US president, “Iran must return to the mainstream of the world order, otherwise things will only get worse”.
Earlier, answering questions from reporters at the White House, Trump said he would not hesitate to order the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities again if Tehran restored uranium enrichment to dangerous levels. Trump reiterated his confidence that the nuclear sites had been destroyed, while advocating their inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Iranian television on 26 June showed a video message from Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has not appeared in public for the past week. He said Iran had defeated both Israel and the US by forcing them to abandon their aggression against Iran. According to Khamenei, Washington only struck Iran because otherwise Israel would have been destroyed. The Ayatollah said the US had struck Iranian nuclear facilities but had failed to “achieve much”.
The US struck three Iranian nuclear sites on the night of 22 June. Israel also struck the sites during a campaign that began on 13 June and ended with a ceasefire on 24 June. President Trump has said it was the US strikes that contributed to an early ceasefire agreement.
The level of damage to Iran’s nuclear programme, which Tehran claims was never intended to produce atomic weapons (Israel and the US dispute this claim), remains a matter of dispute, but US intelligence chiefs have issued statements that the sites suffered significant damage.