Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, congratulated Iranians for what he called a victory over Israel and the United States, in a defiant video message that appeared to be his first public statement since the U.S. bombed three of the country’s nuclear facilities on Sunday.
Mr. Khamenei, 86, has the final say on key decisions but had not been seen or heard from publicly in a week. Although he had issued two video statements during Iran’s 12-day conflict with Israel, he had not released any recorded messages after the American miliary attack. Iran fired retaliatory missiles on a U.S. military base in Qatar and agreed to a cease-fire with Israel without any public signs of Mr. Khamenei.
His silence had raised questions among Iranians over his health and his whereabouts. Iranian officials had previously said Mr. Khamenei was sheltering in a bunker and refraining from any electronic communications to prevent assassination attempts against him.
It was not clear when the prerecorded video was made. Mr. Khamenei, whose voice sounded raspy and frail, was seated in front of a brown curtain as he spoke, with an Iranian flag to his left and a photograph of the Islamic Republic’s first leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, hanging above him. The setting was identical to the last video he released, on June 18.
Mr. Khamenei appeared to have been speaking after Iran retaliated against the U.S. strikes. He declared that Iran’s missile strikes in Qatar on the Al Udeid Air Base caused “some damage” and warned that Tehran could “take action again” if necessary.
The United States joined the war because Israel would have been “completely destroyed” if it did not, he said.
“But it did not gain anything, he said, adding that Iran “gave America a severe slap.”
Mr. Khamenei downplayed the extent of damage from the U.S. and Israeli strikes, even as Iran’s government acknowledged the deaths of Behnam Shahriyari and Said Izadi, two senior military commanders in the Quds Force, an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Israel said it had killed two Quds Force generals in strikes last Saturday.
Mr. Khamenei said that the attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities “were unable to do anything important.” In a reference to Mr. Trump’s claims that the strikes “obliterated” the nuclear sites, the supreme leader insisted that the president had “exaggerated” their effectiveness.
Much of the speech focused on a message that Mr. Trump posted on social media days before the U.S. strikes on Iran, when he called for “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” and said that the ayatollah was an “easy target.” Mr. Khamenei argued that Mr. Trump’s message was proof that the United States’ real focus was not Iran’s nuclear program. “This is not about enrichment anymore, this is not about the nuclear industry, this is about Iran surrendering,” he said, adding that previous American administrations had never publicly acknowledged this.
Iran’s theocratic government has long faced waves of popular unrest among its population of 90 million. But the Israeli strikes, which inflicted a heavy civilian death toll, have sparked national outrage and stirred many to rally around the flag.
Mr. Khamenei appeared to seek to capitalize on those sentiments. Officials have made a wave of arrests in recent days, in what they described as an attempt to root out collaborators who helped Israeli intelligence efforts. But human rights groups have said these arrests have also become a pretext for detaining many foreigners, minorities, and opposition figures. Many Iranians worry that the war could be followed by a crackdown on critics, in a bid by the government to reassert control.
Mr. Khamenei did not address how much of Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity has survived after the U.S. and Israeli missile strikes, and what Iran will do with its nuclear program.
Conflicting U.S. intelligence assessments have caused uncertainty. Mr. Trump and the U.S. defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, have continued to assert that Iran’s nuclear program was severely damaged. But a preliminary U.S. intelligence analysis said it was set back by only a few months.
Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, told French radio on Thursday that centrifuges at the Fordo uranium enrichment plant in Iran were “no longer operational.” The agency made the assessment using satellite images only, but Mr. Grossi said the power of the bombs used and the technical details of the plants meant they would not be functional.
Earlier on Thursday, the Guardian Council, a powerful clerical body which has veto power over legislation, approved a proposal passed by Iran’s parliament to suspend cooperation with the I.A.E.A. If enacted, the law would effectively block international oversight of Iran’s nuclear program.
How to handle the legislation now falls to Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, a moderate who was elected on campaign promises to engage with the West. Mr. Pezeshkian has also publicly signaled his willingness to return to the negotiating table with the United States.
Should he choose not to enact the law, a supervisory committee would need to settle the dispute.
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