Iran’s supreme leader has accused US President Donald Trump of exaggerating the success of recent American military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, saying they achieved no significant results.
“The American president exaggerated events in unusual ways, and it turned out that he needed this exaggeration,” Ali Khamenei said in a statement posted to his official X account on Sunday.
“Anyone who heard those words understood that beneath their surface, another truth existed. They couldn’t do anything and exaggerated to cover up and conceal the truth,” he added.
Earlier, Trump said in an interview with Fox News that “we went in. We destroyed their nuclear capability, and we stopped. It was a beautiful thing. And they couldn’t have gone on much further… That was a very intense 12 days — very, very intense”.
A conflict between Israel and Iran erupted on June 13, when Israel launched air strikes on Iranian military, nuclear and civilian sites, killing at least 606 people and injuring 5,332, according to Iran’s Health Ministry.
Tehran launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes on Israel, killing at least 29 people and wounding more than 3,400, according to figures released by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The US bombed Iran’s Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities in an escalation of the conflict.
The conflict came to a halt under a US-sponsored ceasefire that took effect on June 24.
