US strikes were never about nuclear, but about Iran surrender – Khamenei
Ghoncheh Habibiazad
BBC Persian
Iran’s supreme leader says the US military action was never about nuclear issues or nuclear enrichment – but about “surrender”.
One day it’s about human rights, another day it’s about women’s rights, then it’s about the nuclear issue, then about the missiles, he says.
But he adds that actually in its core, it has always been about one thing: they want Iran to surrender.
‘The word surrender is not in our vocabulary’
Ghoncheh Habibiazad
BBC Persian, World Service reporter
Ayatollah Khamenei continues, saying that the Iranian people demonstrated their unity – sending a message that “our people are one voice”.
He says Trump called on Iran to “surrender”, but his comments were “too big for the mouth of the president of the United States”.
“For a great country and nation like Iran, the very mention of surrender is an insult,” Khamenei adds.
He adds that Donald Trump accidentally revealed a truth – that the Americans have been opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran from the very beginning.
US failed to achieve anything significant and exaggerated it – Khamenei
Ghoncheh Habibiazad
BBC Persian
In his statement, Ayatollah Khamenei says the US “failed to achieve anything significant” by attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities.
He says US President Donald Trump had made an “unusually exaggerated” account of what had taken place.
It was clear he needed to do it, says Khamenei – adding that anyone listening could tell the US were overstating things to distort the truth.
We attacked one of the US’s key bases in the region, and here, they tried to downplay it, he says.
Khamenei praises unity of Iranian people
Ghoncheh Habibiazad
BBC Persian
Ayatollah Khamenei has just posted another message, this time reported by the semi-official Fars News Agency on Telegram.
“A third congratulation, congratulations on the unity of the Iranian nation,” he writes.
“A nation of around 90 million stood united, with one voice, shoulder to shoulder, in support of the armed forces.
“The Iranian nation demonstrated its distinguished character and showed that, when necessary, a single voice will be heard from this nation.”
Iran delivered a ‘hard slap to America’s face’
We can now bring you more from Ayatollah Khamenei, who in a post on X says congratulations once more to his country, focusing this time on “our beloved Iran’s victory over the American regime”.
He says the US “entered a direct war because it felt that if it did not, the Zionist regime would be completely destroyed”.
Khamenei goes on to suggest the US “gained no achievements from this war,” adding that Iran was able to emerge “victorious” and “delivered a hard slap to America’s face”.
Khamenei not been seen for more than a week
Iran’s supreme leader has not been seen for over a week – he last gave a televised statement from an undisclosed location on 18 June.
Earlier today, Israeli media was heavily questioning the whereabouts of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
BBC Monitoring – which looks at media reports – said Israeli media have been keen to highlight prospects of regime change inside Iran and hopes that Israeli strikes on Iran could spark protests against the leadership from within Iran.
On Channel 14 News, commentators claimed Khamenei’s days as leader are numbered, adding that he’s in a state of “mental anguish”.
What has the US bombed and what weapons were used?
While we wait for Ayatollah Khamenei’s video address to be broadcast, let’s have a look at what we know about the impact of the US strikes on Iran.
Washington says the strikes have significantly set back the prospects of Iran building nuclear weapons after three of Tehran’s main nuclear facilities were hit.
The operation – nicknamed Midnight Hammer – involved 125 US military aircraft and involved the sites of Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.
They were hit between 22:40 GMT and 23:05 GMT on Saturday (02:40-03:05 on Sunday Tehran time), the US says.
Fourteen GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs) were dropped on the Fordo site, a nuclear enrichment facility buried deep below a mountain outside Tehran, which is vital to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
At the same time, two dozen cruise missiles were launched at the Isfahan site from a submarine – in total, 75 “precision-guided weapons” were used during the operation.
Ayatollah says Iran secured ‘victory’ over Israel
As we wait to bring you the top lines from Khamenei’s speech, the ayatollah has just posted on X to congratulate the Iranian people for the “victory” over Israel.
“I offer my congratulations on the victory over the fallacious Zionist regime,” he writes.
Iran’s Ayatollah speaks for first time since ceasefire as Hegseth prepares ‘major’ update
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, will speak within the next few minutes in a video message, marking his first message since the US announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.
The message comes hours before US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is due to hold a news conference, where he’ll give an update on the impact of US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend.
US President Donald Trump, writing on Truth Social, says the “major” update will be delivered from the Pentagon at 08:00 EST (13:00 BST), when Hegseth will be joined by military representatives.
“The News Conference will prove both interesting and irrefutable,” Trump adds.
Speaking from a Nato summit yesterday, Hegseth was emphatic that US strikes had significantly diminished Tehran’s nuclear capabilities.
But earlier reports quoting US intelligence sources suggested the strikes had only set Iran’s nuclear programme back by months and key components had not been destroyed.
Stick with us as we bring you the latest updates on this story.
