Ayatollah Khamenei: 'Iran Will Never Bow Or Break'

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer) Tehran : In his first televised address following the ceasefire that ended the deadliest Iran-Israel confrontation to date, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei vowed that Iran“will never surrender” to the United States, denouncing recent American rhetoric as insulting and delusional.

Responding to U.S. President Donald Trump's assertion that Iran must“surrender,” Ayatollah Khamenei dismissed the idea as laughable, invoking Iran's ancient civilisation and national pride.

“The American president indicated in one of his statements that Iran must surrender. Surrender! It is no longer a question of enrichment, nor of the nuclear industry, but of the surrender of Iran,” said Sayyed Khamenei in a televised speech carried by state media on Thursday.

Reminding the American president of Iran's great history and civilisation Ayatollah Khamenei said calls for Iran's surrender were too big for the mouth of a US President.

Read Also 14 Scientists Killed As Israel Targets Iran's Nuclear Brain Video- Iran-Israel War: Outcome And Fallout

“Of course, such a statement is far too grand for the mouth of the US president,” the leader remarked. A nation like Iran-with its greatness, its history, its culture, and its national will forged in steel-to speak of surrender in reference to such a country is a joke to anyone who knows the Iranian people.”

He hastened to add that the American governments have, since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, been at odds with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“They've clashed with us time and again, each time with a different excuse-human rights, democracy, women's rights, uranium enrichment, missile development,” Iran leader said.

“But at the core, it has always been one thing: they want Iran to surrender.”

Aytaollah Khamenei said previous US presidents didn't make such assertions outright because no rational human being accepts telling a nation to surrender, so they disguised it under slogans.

“This president exposed that truth-he made clear that the Americans will only be satisfied with the total surrender of Iran, and nothing less,” Khamenei said.

“The Iranian people must know: this is why we oppose America. This is the root of the hostility, and this is the great insult the Americans direct at our nation.”

He reminded the Americans that the Iranian people are a great nation, steeped in ancient civilisation with cultural and civilisational wealth hundreds of times greater than that of America or similar nations.

“To expect a country like Iran to surrender to another is sheer nonsense-and it will surely be laughed at by every wise and sensible person,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

Without naming Israel directly, Ayatollah Khamenei referred to it as a“fallacious Zionist regime.”“With all that commotion and all those claims, the Zionist regime was practically knocked out and crushed under the blows of the Islamic Republic,” he said.

Ayatollah Khamenei said, the US entered the war directly because it feared that if it didn't, the“Zionist regime would be completely destroyed,” adding“US intervened to save them (Israeli's) but gained nothing from the war.”

Iran leaders remarks come two days after a ceasefire halted a 12-day war between Iran and Israel – the foes' deadliest and most destructive confrontation – and mark his first public appearance since June 19.

The speech also comes amid conflicting accounts in the US over the extent of the damage inflicted by US strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan during the conflict. US President Donald Trump said the strikes“obliterated” the nuclear facilities.

But Iran leader said US President had“exaggerated” the impact of the attacks claiming the US strikes“did nothing significant” to Iran's nuclear facilities.

“The Islamic republic won, and in retaliation dealt a severe slap to the face of America,” he said, a reference to Iran's missile launch targeting a US base in Qatar, the largest in the Middle East.

Congratulating the Iranian nation for what he described as great victory, Ayatollah Khamenei said the idea of the Islamic Republic being capable of delivering such devastating strikes had never even crossed the enemy's mind, but it did happen.

MENAFN26062025000215011059ID1109729400