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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated that US strikes on Iran’s nuclear websites “didn’t obtain something” and Donald Trump had “exaggerated” their affect.
The remarks come amid conflicting accounts of the extent of the harm to Iran’s nuclear services from US bombing over the weekend. American forces struck three Iranian nuclear websites, with the US president claiming the assaults had “obliterated” the services.
However in a video message on Thursday, Khamenei, Iran’s final resolution maker, stated Trump had “exaggerated as a result of he wanted to”.
“Anybody who heard his remarks may inform there was a distinct actuality behind his phrases — they might do nothing,” the 86-year-old supreme chief stated in his first public feedback since a ceasefire with Israel took maintain this week.
Khamenei was talking as hypothesis mounted over the extent to which the US assault has impeded Tehran’s nuclear programme.
On Tuesday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian stated the “aggressor enemy failed” to destroy nuclear websites. A US intelligence report leaked the identical day urged the strikes had solely set Tehran’s nuclear programme again a number of months.
However on Wednesday, CIA director John Ratcliffe, a Trump appointee, stated intelligence indicated that Iran’s nuclear programme had been “severely broken” and would should be rebuilt “over the course of years”.
His feedback adopted media reviews of an evaluation from the US Protection Intelligence Company that estimated the bombing had set again Iran’s nuclear programme by lower than six months.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday lambasted the media for specializing in the DIA report, which the army intelligence company had later confused was a “preliminary, low-confidence evaluation”.
In a joint press convention with Basic Dan Caine, the US chair of the joint chiefs, Hegseth stated “first reviews are virtually all the time unsuitable” and criticised the media for reporting on “biased leaks”.
However Hegseth and Caine didn’t present new proof to assist claims by Trump that Iran’s nuclear website at Fordow had been “obliterated”. They referred questions on harm assessments to the CIA and different US intelligence businesses.
Requested if he agreed with the declare that the nuclear programme had been “obliterated”, Caine stated his function was to not conduct battle harm assessments and once more referred inquiries to the intelligence group.
Rafael Grossi, director-general of the Worldwide Atomic Power Company, advised French Radio that Iran’s nuclear programme had “suffered monumental harm”, although he stated claims of its full destruction had been overblown.
Khamenei’s extended absence from public view had raised hypothesis about his security. Israel focused high-ranking Iranian army officers and nuclear scientists within the early levels of the 12-day battle.
The latest battle marks the primary time since assuming energy in 1989 that Khamenei has gone into hiding throughout a conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t rule out focusing on Khamenei straight in the course of the marketing campaign, even calling on Iranians to stand up and pursue regime change.
Trump has insisted that the US knew precisely the place Khamenei was positioned in the course of the conflict, however added {that a} resolution to get rid of him had not been made.
Extra reporting by Adrienne Klasa in Paris