TEHRAN, June 26. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has made it clear that Washington will only be satisfied with Tehran's surrender, but that will never happen, and it is foolish to even think about it, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.
"The US president said in one of his speeches that Iran must surrender. Surrender! It is no longer about [uranium] enrichment, not about the nuclear industry, but about Iran's surrender. Those who know the Iranian nation laugh at the word ‘surrender’ in relation to Iran, a country with such greatness, such history, such culture, and such a strong-willed people. But his statement revealed the truth: the Americans have been in conflict with Islamic Iran since the revolution. They have attacked and each time had an excuse: sometimes it was human rights, sometimes democracy, sometimes women's rights, sometimes enrichment, sometimes the nuclear issue, and sometimes missile production. They come up with different excuses, but the essence is the same: the capitulation of Iran," Khamenei said in his address to the Iranian people.
The supreme leader pointed out that previous US presidents "did not recognize this because it is unacceptable," but Trump "revealed the truth, showed and made it clear that the Americans will only be satisfied with Iran's surrender and nothing less."·"The Iranian people should know that this is the reason for the conflict with the US. The Americans have deeply insulted the Iranian people, and that will never happen," he emphasized. "Expecting Iran to capitulate to another country is foolish and erroneous, and will certainly be laughed at by the wise," Khamenei added.
In the early morning hours of June 13, Israel launched a military operation against Iran. Less than 24 hours later, Iran retaliated. Nine days later, on the morning of June 22, US jets attacked three Iranian nuclear facilities, entering the conflict. The following evening, Tehran launched a missile strike on Al Udeid, the largest US military airbase in the region, located in Qatar. According to the US authorities, there were no casualties or significant damage.
On June 24, Trump announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a complete ceasefire. The Israeli authorities confirmed that they had accepted the US proposal and announced that they had completed all objectives in their operation against Iran. In turn, Tehran said that it had achieved a victory over Tel Aviv by forcing it to unilaterally halt its aggression. The ceasefire has been in effect since June 24.