In his first remarks since the ceasefire, Iran’s Khamenei returns to warn of more US assaults.

United Arab Emirates (AP) — DUBAI In his first public remarks since a ceasefire agreement with Israel, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday that his nation had put a “slap to America’s face” by hitting a U.S. air base in Qatar and issued a warning against more assaults. In his first appearance since June 19, Khamenei delivered a rehearsed address on Iranian state television that was full of threats and warnings against the Islamic Republic’s longstanding enemies, Israel and the United States. Speaking in a scratchy voice and occasionally stumbling over his words, the 86-year-old, a gifted orator known for his impassioned remarks to the nation’s more than 90 million people, looked more exhausted than he had just a week ago.

influence. Khamenei claimed that they were unable to accomplish anything noteworthy. Any reference to Iran’s nuclear program or the condition of their centrifuges and facilities following massive U.S. and Israeli bombings was absent from his more than ten-minute video statement. He described Monday’s attack on the U.S. air base in Qatar as a limited attack that did not result in any casualties, which was different from what the U.S. said. In response to Khamenei’s video, the White House said he was attempting to “save face.” Karoline Leavitt, press secretary, told reporters Thursday that “any commonsense, open-minded person knows the truth about the precision strikes on Saturday night.” “They achieved tremendous success.”

Iran installations are damaged, according to a UN nuclear inspector. Rafael Grossi, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, reaffirmed Thursday that he can only presume the centrifuges are not working and that the damage caused by Israeli and American strikes at Iranian nuclear sites “is very, very, very considerable.” Grossi told French radio RFI, “I think annihilated is too much, but it suffered enormous damage.” In order to provide an impartial evaluation of the damage, the IAEA has been prohibited from visiting any of the Iranian installations. Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, acknowledged on Wednesday that “there is no doubt that our nuclear installations have suffered significant damage.”

seeking refuge in a covert location following Israel’s June 13 strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, which targeted senior military leaders and scientists. Trump was able to assist in negotiating a truce that went into force on Tuesday following the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities on Sunday. An Iranian senior cautions the US about more assaults. The U.S. only got involved in the conflict because, according to Khamenei, “it felt that if it did not intervene, the Zionist regime would be utterly destroyed.” He claimed, “It went into the war to save them, but it gained nothing.”

His nation’s assault on the American base in Qatar on Monday, he claimed, was noteworthy because it demonstrated that Iran “has access to important U.S. centers in the region and can act against them whenever it deems necessary.” He declared, “This action can be repeated in the future.” “The Islamic Republic was victorious and, in retaliation, delivered a hand slap to America’s face,” he stated. He declared, “The enemy will undoubtedly pay a heavy price should any aggression occur.” Trump has called the retaliatory strike a “very weak response,” claiming that Iran had forewarned the United States and stressing that no one had been hurt.

Iran’s life gradually returns to normal with the ceasefire. Shops in Tehran’s capital started to reopen on Thursday, and traffic started to return to the streets as Iran partially restored its airspace, which had been blocked since the start of the conflict. Iran has reopened its airspace for the eastern part of the country to both domestic and international flights, including those that traverse Iranian airspace, according to Majid Akhavan, spokesman for the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development. Tehran reported earlier this week that 5,332 people had been injured and 606 people had died in the Iranian conflict. According to data provided Wednesday by the Human Rights Activists group in Washington, Israeli strikes on Iran may have killed at least 1,054 people and injured 4,476 more.