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Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that US strikes on Israel’s nuclear sites “did not achieve anything” and Donald Trump had “exaggerated” their impact, in his first public comments since a ceasefire with Israel took hold this week.
The remarks come amid conflicting accounts of the extent of the damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities from US bombing over the weekend. American forces struck three Iranian nuclear sites, with Trump claiming the attacks had “obliterated” the facilities.
But in a video message on Thursday, Khamenei, the country’s ultimate decision maker, said the US president had “exaggerated because he needed to”.
“Anyone who heard his remarks could tell there was a different reality behind his words — they could do nothing,” the 86-year-old added.
The comments come amid a flurry of speculation over the extent to which the US strikes have impeded Tehran’s nuclear programme.
On Tuesday, Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian said the “aggressor enemy failed” to destroy nuclear sites. A US intelligence report leaked the same day suggested the strikes had only set Tehran’s nuclear programme back a few months.
But on Wednesday, CIA director John Ratcliffe, a Trump appointee, suggested the facilities had been “severely damaged” and “would have to be rebuilt over the course of years”.
Khamenei’s prolonged absence from public view had raised speculation about his safety. Israel targeted high-ranking Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists in the early stages of the 12-day conflict.
The recent conflict marks the first time since assuming power in 1989 that Khamenei has gone into hiding during a war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not rule out targeting Khamenei directly during the campaign, even calling on Iranians to rise up and pursue regime change.
US President Donald Trump has insisted that the US knew exactly where Khamenei was located during the war, but added that a decision to eliminate him had not been made.
Khamenei on Thursday also claimed that the Islamic Republic had “brought the Zionist regime to its knees and crushed it”.
He said Iran had “delivered a heavy slap to the US’s face”.
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