Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in Tehran after rejecting U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that Washington destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities [Image by Bloomberg]
Posting a series of messages on X, Khamenei directly refuted Trump’s claims that U.S. airstrikes in June “destroyed” Iran’s nuclear program.
“America’s President boasts that we bombed and destroyed Iran’s nuclear program. Dream on, very well!” Khamenei wrote.
He also mocked Trump’s recent visit to Israel as a gesture to prop up what he called a “demoralized Zionist regime.”.
Mockery of Trump’s Israel Visit
Trump paid an occupation visit to Palestine laden with Zionist bluster and empty words to console the disappointed Zionists, Khamenei said. “They got such a slap in the 12-day war that they could not even believe it.”
Trump last week told reporters at the White House that Iran was “trying to survive” and also warned that American troops would strike again if Tehran tried to revive its nuclear program.
If Iran tries to produce another nuclear weapon, that facility will be struck and destroyed,” Trump said.
Washington-Tehran hostilities have heightened once more after five rounds of back-channel nuclear negotiations broke down early this year. The stalled negotiations led to the joint U.S.-Israeli bombing attack on Iranian nuclear installations.
Spurning Trump’s call for new talks, Khamenei stated that every agreement forced into being is not diplomacy but coercion.
“Trump insists on being a dealmaker, but a deal that is extracted with power is not a deal, it’s an imposition,” said Khamenei in a statement carried by state media.
Escalating Violence in Gaza
Meanwhile, however, violence in Gaza puts to the test a U.S.-negotiated ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Dozens were killed in Israeli airstrikes over the weekend; that brought under greater doubt Trump’s much-hoped-for 20-point peace plan.
Western powers continue their accusations that Iran is producing nuclear weapons in the disguise of uranium enrichment. Iran insists that its nuclear program has peaceful, civilian energy uses in its capital.
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