US gained nothing from strikes, Iran’s supreme leader says

The supreme chief of Iran insisted that the United States “has not won any realization of strikes on his nuclear installations, in his first public speech since a cease-fire with Israel was agreed on Tuesday.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that strikes had “accomplished nothing significant” to disturb Iran’s nuclear program and describes reprisals against an American air base in Qatar as a “hard blow”.

He came then that Washington doubled on his assessment that strikes had seriously undermined the nuclear ambitions of Iran.

The United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that the intelligence gathered by the United States and that Israel indicated that the operation “has considerably damaged the nuclear program, fixing it in the years”.

Previously, American President Donald Trump said that strikes against three key nuclear sites inside Iran “erased” had completely erased them, and responded furiously to anonymous American officials suggesting that the damage could have been less extensive than expected.

Speaking alongside General Dan Caine at a Pentagon press conference on Thursday morning, Hegseth said that the mission was a “historic success” that had “returned [Iranian] Inoperable enrichment installations “.

During a combative exchange sometimes with journalists, Hegseth also said that the United States did not know “any intelligence” which indicated that the enriched uranium had left Fordo-the deeply buried installation that the United States was targeting with powerful so-called bunker bombs-before strikes.

Khamenei, who had been largely out of the public since the direct conflict with Israel broke out on June 13, published a television address Thursday morning, ending a week’s public silence.

The supreme chief would have sheltered in a bunker and limiting communications, which aroused speculation about his fate. The Iranian authorities did not reveal where he spoke Thursday, although a senior official admitted that he was in a safe place earlier this week.

Khamenei used Thursday’s video address to threaten more strikes on the American bases in the Middle East if Iran was again attacked and declared the victory both on Israel and in the United States.

Khamenei said Trump had “exaggerated” the impact of nuclear site strikes, adding: “They could not do anything and did not achieve their goal.”

By referring to the attack on the American air base in Qatar, Khamenei said: “This incident is also reproducible in the future, and if an attack takes place, the cost of the enemy and the aggressor will undoubtedly be very high.”

No one was killed during this attack, which, according to Trump, had been reported before its launch. The United States says the base has not been damaged.

CBS News, the American partner of the BBC, reports that the White House is considering a range of options to attract Iran to the negotiating table, in particular by facilitating the financing of a civil nuclear program and without enrichment.

However, the Iranian Foreign Minister said on Thursday on Iranian state television that there were no talks with the United States.

The direct confrontation broke out between Iran and Israel on June 13, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “if it was not arrested, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time”.

One day earlier, the Board of Directors of Global Nuclear Watchdog said that Iran has violated its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in 20 years.

Iran argued that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes and that it had never sought to develop a nuclear weapon.

On Thursday, Iran approved a parliamentary bill calling at the end of the country’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which means that it is no longer committed to allowing nuclear inspectors to go to its sites.

The Iranian Ministry of Health said that 610 people had been killed during the 12 days of air attacks, while the Israeli authorities said 28 had been killed.

The United States became directly involved last weekend, hitting facilities in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan, before Trump quickly tried to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, which has since held.

The UN nuclear supervisor, Rafael Grossi, said on Wednesday that there was a chance that Tehran had moved a large part of his highly enriched uranium while he was attacked.