President Donald Trump issued blistering remarks in response to Iran’s Supreme Leader claiming victory over Israel and, by extension, the U.S. In a loaded public message, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had also threatened to attack more U.S. Military bases, further splintering the Middle Eastern country’s relationship with the U.S.

“Look, you’re a man of great faith. A man who’s highly respected in his country. You have to tell the truth. You got beat to hell,” Trump said as he addressed the Iranian Supreme Leader during a White House press conference on Friday. Trump was asked by a reporter if the U.S. would consider bombing Iran again, if intelligence reports were to conclude that Iran could enrich uranium to a level that concerns him. "Sure, without question, absolutely," he replied.

Trump issued an even stronger response on his social media platform, Truth Social, later in the day, and doubled down on his stance once more when he reposted his message early Saturday morning.

In the lengthy post, Trump accused Khamenei of publicly sharing a “lie” by claiming Iran achieved a victory over Israel. He reaffirmed his much debated viewpoint that the U.S. strikes “obliterated” the three key nuclear facilities it targeted on Saturday, June 21. Trump also seemingly made reference to previous reports that stated the White House turned down a plan by Israel to try and kill Khamenei.

“His country was decimated, his three evil nuclear sites were obliterated, and I knew exactly where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces... terminate his life. I saved him from a very ugly and ignominious death,” Trump said, lamenting that Khamenei would not “thank” him for this. “During the last few days, I was working on the possible removal of sanctions, and other things, which would have given a much better chance to Iran at a full, fast, and complete recovery. The sanctions are biting! But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief.”

According to Congress, the U.S. sanctions on Iran “are arguably the most extensive and comprehensive set of sanctions that the United States maintains on any country.” They block Iranian government assets in the U.S., ban nearly all U.S. trade with Iran, and prohibit foreign assistance and arms sales.

Trump concluded his charged social media message by saying “Iran has to get back into the world order flow” or else things “will only get worse for them.”

“They are always so angry, hostile, and unhappy, and look at what it has gotten them. A burned out, blown up country with no future, a decimated military, a horrible economy, and death all around them. They have no hope, and it will only get worse! I wish the leadership of Iran would realize that you often get more with honey than you do with vinegar. Peace!"

Khamenei broke his silence on Thursday, publicly speaking out—via a pre-recorded televised address and various social media comments— for the first time since Trump announced the (admittedly fragile) cease-fire between Israel and Iran.

In his televised message, Khamenei threatened to attack more U.S. military bases should any further aggression from the U.S. side occur.

“The Islamic Republic slapped America in the face. It attacked one of the important American bases in the region,” Khamenei said, referring to his country’s air assault on Al Udeid Air Base, a U.S. airbase in Qatar. The strikes were intercepted by the U.S. (except for one that was allowed to proceed as there was no risk of contact), and no casualties were reported. The military action was retaliatory, a direct response to the U.S. strikes on nuclear facilities.

Khamenei claimed “total victory” over Israel. But Israel, the U.S., and Iran have all claimed to have won the war that started on June 13, when Israel launched strikes on Iranian nuclear and military targets, amid growing concern over Iran’s nuclear capabilities. When the U.S. actively joined the conflict on June 21, striking three key Iranian nuclear facilities, world leaders urged de-escalation and a return to negotiations, amid fears of a far-reaching war erupting.

Though Trump continues to say that Iran’s nuclear sites were “totally obliterated,” others have cast doubts on how effective the U.S. strikes were in setting back Iran’s nuclear program. Leaked U.S. intelligence suggested that the damage to Iran’s nuclear program may not be as severe as Trump has stated. CIA director John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday that the sites had been “severely damaged” by the U.S. strikes, and that it would take years to be rebuilt. Amid the debate, the White House has put out statements arguing Trump’s stance that the facilities were "obliterated," labelling reports to the contrary as "fake news."

But some Democrats left a classified meeting with lingering questions over the effectiveness of the strikes.

“There’s no doubt there was damage done to the program, but the allegations that we have obliterated their program just don’t seem to stand up to reason,” said Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut on Thursday. “To me, it still appears that we have only set back the Iranian nuclear program by a handful of months.”

When asked about concerns of Iran having “secret nuclear sites” at Friday’s press conference, Trump said he was “not worried about it at all.”

“They’re exhausted. The last thing they're thinking about right now is nuclear,” he told reporters. “You know what they're thinking of? They're thinking about tomorrow, trying to live in such a mess. The place was bombed to hell.”

Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that Trump needs to retire his "disrespectful" tone towards Khamenei if he wants a deal to be struck between the U.S. and Iran.

“If President Trump is genuine about wanting a deal, he should put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone towards Iran’s Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, and stop hurting his millions of heartfelt followers,” he said. "The great and powerful Iranian people, who showed the world that the Israeli regime had no choice but to run to 'Daddy' to avoid being flattened by our missiles, do not take kindly to threats and insults."

Araghchi was referencing remarks made by NATO chief Mark Rutte who, during the NATO Summit on Wednesday, referred to Trump as the "daddy" who had to intervene in the conflict between Israel and Iran.

Amid the back-and-forth between Trump and Iran, on Saturday, thousands of mourners gathered in Tehran for the funerals of top Iranian military commanders and scientists that were killed in the Israeli strikes. According to reports, crowds chanted "death to" Israel and America.

Araghchi paid tribute to those who had been killed, and went on to tell Iranians on Saturday that the "pride of a nation is paramount,” pledging that Iran would return to “new glory and greater strength."

As the funerals took place, Khamenei spoke out via a post on his Farsi-language social media account, sharing a message that translated to: "The Iranian nation should know that the reason for the opposition to America is that they want Iran to surrender, and this is a great insult to the Iranian nation by the Americans, and such a thing will never happen."

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Trump: I saved Khamenei from ‘ugly’ death

Iranians mourn at funeral ceremony for IRGC generals and scientists killed in Israeli airstrikes -

Donald Trump saved Iran’s Supreme Leader from “a very ugly” death, the US president said last night with the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei still in hiding amid a fragile ceasefire.

Khamenei has not been seen in public since the outbreak of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, but in a televised address aired on Thursday, he declared Iran had “dealt a hard slap to America’s face”.

His comments triggered a backlash from Mr Trump who on Friday said he knew “exactly where he [Khamenei] was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the US Armed Forces... terminate his life”.

On his Truth Social channel, Mr Trump said: “I saved him from a very ugly and ignominious death, and he does not have to say: ‘Thank you, President Trump!’”

Khamenei’s absence was notable on Saturday as thousands turned out on the streets of Tehran for the funerals of Iran’s top commanders and nuclear scientists killed in recent Israeli air strikes.

Senior political and military figures attending the funeral on Saturday included Masoud Pezeshkian, the president of Iran, and Esmail Qaani, head of the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned, according to state media.

Israel also targeted Iran’s military infrastructure, and the US – on Mr Trump’s orders – bombed Tehran’s nuclear programme.

On Thursday, Israel Katz, Israel’s defence minister, told Channel 13: “If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out.” He also admitted that Israel “searched a lot” for the elusive leader.

Also present at the funeral was Ali Shamkhani, Khamenei’s senior advisor, who was seen for the first time since the war. He too was targeted and wounded during the conflict, and was seen using a walking stick in footage from state television.

Credit: Reuters / Anadolu

Crowds chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” as coffins draped in Iranian flags were carried through central Tehran. The flags of both countries were also burned.

Among those buried were Mohammad Bagheri, a major general in the IRGC who was second-in-command of the armed forces after Iran’s supreme leader; Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a nuclear scientist; and Hossein Salami, an IRGC commander. They were all killed on the first day of Israel’s surprise attacks on June 13.

State media said four women and four children were also among the coffins draped in Iranian flags, photos, rose petals and flowers.

The Iranian health ministry said 610 people were killed in Iran during the 12-day war, 13 of them children and 49 women, before a ceasefire came into effect on Tuesday. More than 4,700 were injured.

However, the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) claimed the number was far higher, citing at least 1,054 deaths and 4,476 injuries among civilians and military personnel. In Israel, there were 28 deaths and 3,343 people were treated in hospitals.

Mass arrests took place across Iran in the wake of the war, with over 800 held on charges of supporting Israel and at least six executed. On Saturday morning, HRANA reported that at least 35 Jewish citizens in Tehran and Shiraz were summoned and interrogated by security forces.

The Jewish community in Iran is centuries old and at its peak numbered hundreds of thousands but now stands at just 10,000. In 2011, Iran made it illegal for Iranians to travel to Israel.

“According to a source close to the families, the officers mainly questioned these individuals about their family contacts with relatives in Israel and emphasised that they should refrain from any phone or internet communication abroad for the time being,” the rights group said on Saturday.

“This wave of summonses unfolding amid heightened military tensions between Iran and Israel marks one of the largest such incidents since the early years following the 1979 Revolution. The move starkly contradicts the Islamic Republic’s official narrative of providing ‘equal rights for Iranian-Jewish citizens’.”

In spite of the authorities trying to portray Iranian Jews as secure and fully integrated citizens, HRANA said that there has been “unprecedented pressure” on the minority in recent weeks.

On Saturday, senior Iranian politicians reiterated calls to cut ties with the UN’s nuclear agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Iran’s parliament voted unanimously last Thursday to cut ties with the agency. If it bans the IAEA, the full impact of the bombing by the US and Israel of Iran’s nuclear sites in Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz, will be more difficult to assess.

“Iran had a very vast, ambitious programme, and part of it may still be there. And if not, there is also the self-evident truth that the knowledge is there,” Mr Grossi told CBS in an interview.

Mr Grossi said Iran had not yet asked IAEA inspectors to leave the country.

It comes amid reports the Trump administration is considering offering Iran as much as $30 billion (£22 billion) for Iran to build its own civilian nuclear programme on the condition that is ceased uranium enrichment.

The proposal, to be paid for by lifting sanctions and releasing billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets, is one of several under consideration as Mr Trump forges ahead with efforts to sign a nuclear deal, sources told CNN and NBC.

Details of an agreement, which Mr Trump has denied, are said to have been hashed-out in a secret, hours-long meeting between Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy, and Gulf partners at the White House last Friday, the day before the US launched military strikes on Iran.

One offer allegedly includes giving Iran access to $6 billion (£4 billion) that is currently sitting in foreign bank accounts.

Paying for the programme

Another idea under consideration is for US-backed allies in the Gulf to replace the Fordow nuclear site – which the US struck last weekend – with a non-enrichment nuclear facility, sources told CNN.

“The US is willing to lead these talks” with Iran, a US official told the news outlet. “And someone is going to need to pay for the nuclear programme to be built, but we will not make that commitment.”

Mr Trump dismissed the reports as a “hoax” spread by the “fake news media”.

“Who in the fake news media is the SleazeBag saying that ‘President Trump wants to give Iran $30 billion to build non-military Nuclear facilities’? Never heard of this ridiculous idea,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social late on Friday.

It emerged on Saturday that the US did not use bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site during last week’s bombing raid as the facility is buried too deep underground.

Gen Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators during a classified briefing on Thursday that the US military did not use the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (Mop) bomb on the site because they probably would have had little effect, sources told CNN.

B-2 stealth jets dropped more than a dozen bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s Fordow and Nanantz nuclear sites during the US military’s 37-hour bombing raid last Saturday.

However, the Isfahan site in central Iran, where 60 per cent of the country’s enriched uranium is believed to be stockpiled, was only struck by Tomahawk missiles launched by a US submarine.

During the briefing, attended by Gen Caine, Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, Marco Rubio, secretary of state, and John Ratcliffe, the director of the CIA told lawmakers that the US intelligence community believes the majority of Iran’s enriched nuclear material is buried at Isfahan and Fordow, a US official told CNN.

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Trump Says Iran Might Get Sanctions Relief If It Can Be Peaceful

President Donald Trump suggested he might back eventual sanctions relief for Iran “if they can be peaceful,” combining threats and the prospect of diplomacy after US strikes aimed at destroying Iranian nuclear sites.

“We have the sanctions on,” Trump said in comments on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. “And if they do a job, and if they can be peaceful, and if they can show us they’re not going to do any more harm, I would take the sanctions off.”

Trump said Friday he considered easing sanctions on Iran after a ceasefire but would instead keep them in place, while lashing out at Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for claiming victory in the war with Israel.

That followed his comments last week hinting at relief when he said he doesn’t mind China continuing to buy Iranian oil. White House officials later indicated that didn’t mean an easing of US restrictions.

In the Fox News interview, which was taped Friday, Trump renewed his argument that Iran was weeks away from getting a nuclear weapon and that US strikes “obliterated” a key underground site of Iran’s nuclear program.

He also injected a note of caution, saying that Iran’s nuclear ambitions had been set back “at least for a period of time.”

US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a foreign-policy hawk who’s close to Trump, suggested the US require that Iran recognize Israel’s right to exist as a condition for resuming US-Iranian talks which went through several inconclusive rounds this year.

“They have to say, for the first time — the Iranian regime — we recognize Israel’s right to exist,” Graham said Sunday on ABC’s This Week. “If they can’t say that, you’re never going to get a deal worth a damn.”

The head of the United Nations nuclear monitoring agency disputed the Trump administration’s claims about the level of damage to Iran’s nuclear program from US strikes, which targeted its uranium enrichment capabilities.

“One cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there,” Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “It is clear that there has been severe damage, but it’s not total damage.”

Iran has industrial and technological capabilities to resume producing enriched uranium possibly “in a matter of months,” he said. “So if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.”

He cautioned that damage assessment isn’t the IAEA’s job and the agency’s information on the state of Iran’s nuclear program is limited.