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, said any attack on Iran would come at “great cost”, and noted that Iran had fired on the largest US base in the region, located in Qatar, after Washington joined the Israeli strikes.
“The Islamic Republic slapped America in the face. It attacked one of the important American bases in the region,” Khamenei said.
His pre-recorded remarks were aired on state television.
As in his last comments, released more than a week ago during the 12-day Israeli bombardment, he spoke from an undisclosed indoor location in front of a brown curtain, between an Iranian flag and a portrait of his predecessor Ruhollah Khomeini.
“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.
US President Donald 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.”
