Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Threatens Retaliation Against Any Future US Attacks, Claims Victory Over Israel And Trump

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared victory over the U.S. and Israel in his first public statement on Thursday since American warplanes struck three of Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend. The 86-year-old also threatened to respond to any future U.S. attack by striking American military bases in the Middle East.

Speaking in pre-recorded remarks aired on state television, Khamenei said Iran had “delivered a slap to America’s face” with its retaliatory missile strike on a U.S. military base in Qatar on Monday. 

U.S. equity markets were trending higher in pre-market trade on Thursday, despite Khamenei’s threats. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) was climbed 0.27% while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average Index ETF (DIA) rose 0.23%. The Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (QQQ), which tracks the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100, jumped 0.32%.

“The fact that the Islamic Republic has access to important American centres in the region and can take action against them whenever it deems necessary is not a small incident, it is a major incident,” Khamenei said, according to remarks cited by The Guardian. “This incident can be repeated in the future if an attack is made.”

He also accused U.S. President Donald Trump of exaggerating the impact of the U.S. airstrikes to conceal what he called the operation’s failure. While the U.S. targeted three key nuclear sites, Khamenei claimed the strikes did not achieve “anything important.”

“America entered the war directly because it felt that if it did not, Israel would be completely destroyed,” Khamenei said. “Here, too, the Islamic Republic emerged victorious.”

Khamenei made no mention of potential negotiations, instead accusing Trump of seeking Iran’s “surrender,” an outcome he vowed would never happen. At a press conference during the NATO summit on Wednesday, Trump said that the U.S. and Iran are likely to meet next week to discuss a possible agreement, but added that it is not “necessary.”

Khamenei also claimed that Iran had launched roughly 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel over 12 days during the conflict.

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