In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks to a group of people and officials in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 21, 2025. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed victory over Israel and said his country had “delivered a hand slap to America’s face” on Thursday, in his first public comments since a ceasefire was declared in the war between the two countries.
Khamenei spoke in a video broadcast on Iranian state television, his first appearance since June 19, looking and sounding more tired than he did only a week ago.
He told viewers that the U.S. had only intervened in the war because “it felt that if it did not intervene, the Zionist regime would be utterly destroyed.”
But he said, however, that the U.S. “achieved no gains from this war.”
“The Islamic Republic was victorious and, in retaliation, delivered a hand slap to America’s face,” he said, in apparent reference to an Iranian missile attack on an American base in Qatar on Monday, which caused 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 war June 13 when Israel attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and targeted top military commanders and scientists.
Following an American attack on June 22 that hit the nuclear sites with bunker-buster bombs, U.S. President Donald Trump was able to help negotiate a ceasefire that came into effect on Tuesday.
In his appearance on Thursday, he sat in front of plain brown curtains to give his address, similar to his June 19 message.
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