DUBAI: Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking American military bases in the Middle East, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday, in his first televised remarks since a ceasefire was reached between Iran and Israel.
Khamenei, 86, claimed victory after 12 days of war, culminating in an Iranian attack on the largest US base in the region, located in Qatar, after Washington joined the Israeli strikes.
In his pre-recorded remarks, aired on state television, Khamenei promised that Iran would not surrender despite US President Donald Trump's calls.
"The US President Trump unveiled the truth and made it clear that Americans won't be satisfied with anything less than surrender... such an event will never happen," Khamenei said.
"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, and this incident can be repeated in the future if an attack is made," he added.
Trump said "sure" on Wednesday when asked if the United States would strike again if Iran rebuilt its nuclear enrichment programme.
Tehran has for decades denied accusations by Western leaders that it is seeking nuclear arms.
Khamenei said the US "gained no achievement" after it attacked Iranian nuclear sites, but that it entered the war to "save" Israel after Tehran's missiles broke through Israel's multi-layered defence system.
"The US directly entered the war as it felt that if it did not get involved, the Zionist regime (Israel) would be fully destroyed. It entered the war to save it," he said.
"The US attacked our nuclear facilities, but couldn't do any important deed... The US president did abnormal showmanship and needed to do so," he added.
Trump said over the weekend that the US deployment of 30,000-pound bombs had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear programme. However, this appeared to be contradicted by an initial assessment from one of his administration's intelligence agencies, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also declared "a historic victory" on Tuesday, after the fragile ceasefire took effect, saying Israel had achieved its goal of removing Tehran's nuclear and ballistic missile threat.
Shortly after Khamenei's speech, Netanyahu posted a message with a picture of himself and Trump holding hands with the message: "We will continue to work together to defeat our common enemies."
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said he was unaware of any intelligence suggesting Iran had moved any of its highly enriched uranium to shield it from US strikes on Iran's nuclear programme over the weekend.
US military bombers carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend with more than a dozen 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs.
The results of the strikes are being closely watched to see how far the strikes may have set back Iran's nuclear programme. "I'm not aware of any intelligence that I've reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise," Hegseth said in an often fiery news conference. - Reuters
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