Ayatollah Ali Khamenei taunts Trump by backing CNN intel report that sent him into a 'rage'

In his first remarks since the recent Israel-Iran war ended with a ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump, Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed victory over Israel and the United States. Iran's supreme leader said the US military action was never about nuclear issues or nuclear enrichment - but about "surrender".

In his statement, Ayatollah Khamenei said the US "failed to achieve anything significant" by attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. He said US President Donald Trump had made an “unusually exaggerated” account of what had taken place.

"The Islamic Republic delivered a heavy slap to the US's face. It attacked and inflicted damage on the Al-Udeid Air Base, which is one of the key U.S. bases in the region," Khamenei said.


"The fact that the Islamic Republic has access to key U.S. centers in the region and can take action whenever it deems necessary is a significant matter. Such an action can be repeated in the future too.

"Should any aggression occur, the enemy will definitely pay a heavy price."

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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei taunts Trump on leaked intel report

The Iranian Supreme leader took a jab at US President over a leaked intelligence report that the US attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities weren’t as devastating as the president had claimed. On Tuesday, CNN reported that a top-secret Defense Intelligence Agency assessment believed the US’s June 22 bunker-buster barrage “did not destroy” Iran’s core nuclear infrastructure and likely set the program back by only “a few months.”

Trump and his top officials have pushed back on a leaked intelligence report that said US strikes on Iran only set its nuclear programme back by a few months. Trump said at a NATO summit in The Hague on Wednesday that the strikes led to the "virtual obliteration" of Iran's nuclear capabilities and set its atomic programme back "by decades".

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a televised address Thursday, crowed from his bunker that America “didn’t achieve much,” despite Trump’s “showmanship.”

Khamenei boasted that Iran had “delivered a hand slap to America’s face” with its retaliatory missile strike on a U.S. base in Qatar and said the country would “never surrender.”

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“The Islamic Republic was victorious and, in retaliation, delivered a hand slap to America’s face,” he said, referring to Iran’s missile attack on Monday on an American base in Qatar in which no one was killed.

Then Khamenei doubled down on X, warning: “The fact that the Islamic Republic has access to key US centers in the region and can take action whenever it deems necessary is a significant matter.

“Such an action can be repeated in the future too. Should any aggression occur, the enemy will definitely pay a heavy price.”

"I offer my congratulations on the victory over the fallacious Zionist regime," Khamenei posted to his English-language X account on Thursday ahead of the release of a video statement.

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"With all that commotion and all those claims, the Zionist regime was practically knocked out and crushed under the blows of the Islamic Republic."

Israel and the US struck the Iranian nuclear program hard, saying they destroyed key facilities to prevent Tehran from developing a bomb. Israel also hit Iranian military sites and killed dozens of key senior personnel, including nuclear scientists.

During the 12-day war, Khamenei took shelter as Israel bombed sites across Iran, including the capital Tehran. Trump warned Khamenei that the U.S. knew where he was hiding and the Iranian leader was an "easy target."