After a tense ceasefire with Israel, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has broken his silence—and shaken the geopolitical stage. Rumored to have been sheltering in a bunker amid soaring tensions with Israel, the U.S., and Iran, Khamenei took to social media to deliver a defiant message.
On June 26, he boldly proclaimed victory over the United States following the June 21 U.S. airstrikes on Israeli nuclear sites, dismissing the attacks as a total failure. Writing on Twitter, he declared:
“Congratulations to our beloved Iran on defeating the U.S. regime.”
Khamenei accused the U.S. of jumping into the conflict to save the “Zionist regime,” but claimed Washington’s efforts fell flat:
“The U.S. entered the war fearing the complete destruction of the Zionist regime, but achieved absolutely nothing.”
In a follow-up tweet, he boasted about Iran’s retaliatory strike against the Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar—one of America’s key regional outposts—calling it a “heavy slap” to U.S. power. The airstrike, launched on June 23, reportedly caused damage but no casualties.
In a recent broadcast, Khamenei addressed the Iranian public, labeling President Trump’s boasts about the U.S. strikes as “unusually exaggerated” and claimed “Operation Midnight Hammer” failed to accomplish anything meaningful, according to BBC reports. This statement came after leaked intelligence assessments suggested Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile remained intact.
CNN reported that a preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency assessment contradicted Trump’s triumphant claims. In response, Trump fired back fiercely on Truth Social, branding CNN and The New York Times as purveyors of “FAKE NEWS” attempting to undermine what he called “one of the most successful military strikes in history.” He insisted:
“THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! BOTH THE TIMES AND CNN ARE BEING SLAMMED BY THE PUBLIC!”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt swiftly denied the leaked reports, calling them “flat-out wrong” and a deliberate effort to discredit the mission and the brave pilots behind it.
She asserted:
“Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on target: total obliteration.”
