DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed victory over Israel and mentioned his nation had “delivered a hand slap to America’s face” on Thursday, in his first public feedback since a ceasefire was declared within the warfare between the 2 nations.
Khamenei spoke in a video broadcast on Iranian state tv, his first look since June 19, trying and sounding extra drained than he did solely per week in the past.
He instructed viewers that the U.S. had solely intervened within the warfare as a result of “it felt that if it didn’t intervene, the Zionist regime could be totally destroyed.”
However he mentioned, nonetheless, that the U.S. “achieved no good points from this warfare.”
“The Islamic Republic was victorious and, in retaliation, delivered a hand slap to America’s face,” he mentioned, in obvious reference to an Iranian missile assault on an American base in Qatar on Monday, which induced no casualties.
The 86-year-old Khamenei hasn’t been seen in public since taking shelter in a secret location after the outbreak of the warfare June 13 when Israel attacked Iranian nuclear services and focused prime army commanders and scientists.
Following an American assault on June 22 that hit the nuclear websites with bunker-buster bombs, U.S. President Donald Trump was capable of assist negotiate a ceasefire that got here into impact on Tuesday.
In his look on Thursday, he sat in entrance of plain brown curtains to offer his handle, just like his June 19 message.