Tehran: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that Iran achieved victory over Israel as he made first made his first public statement on Thursday after the US announced a ceasefire to end Israel-Iran war.
“With all that clamour, with all those claims, the Zionist regime, under the blows of the Islamic Republic, has almost collapsed and been crushed,” Khamenei said in a televised message to the Iranian people posted on his official X account.
“I offer my congratulations on the victory over the fallacious Zionist regime,” he added.
“The Zionist regime almost collapsed and was crushed under the strikes of the Islamic Republic,” Khamenei said in a statement carried by state media.
Never surrender
He also said that Iran will ‘never surrender’ to the US and that the United States has “gained nothing” from its attacks during the conflict with Israel.
“It has gained nothing from this war,” Khamenei said of Washington, adding, “The Islamic Republic won and in retaliation dealt a severe slap to the face of America, and that Trump is trying to hide the truth.”
“The American president indicated in one of his statements that Iran must surrender. Surrender! It is no longer a question of enrichment, nor of the nuclear industry, but of the surrender of Iran,” said Khamenei in a televised speech.
“Such an event (surrender) will never happen. It will never happen.”
Khamenei, in his video message, also stated that Iran “delivered a hand slap to America’s face”.
He told viewers that the US had only intervened in the war because “it felt that if it did not intervene, the Zionist regime [Israel] would be utterly destroyed.
“The Zionist regime almost collapsed and was crushed under the strikes of the Islamic Republic,” he added.
Khamenei, in his televised message, says “Trump, in one of his speeches, said Iran needs to surrender.
“Trump has unveiled the truth that the US will only be satisfied with Iran’s surrender – but surrender will never happen, our nation is powerful.”
