Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, yesterday, said the nation would never surrender and warned that the United States would suffer irreparable damage if it intervenes, even as Israel said it had destroyed the internal security headquarters in Tehran.
Khamenei’s speech came six days into the conflict, with Trump saying his patience with Iran had already run out, but declined to say whether US would intervene in the conflict.
This is even as Amnesty International has urged Israel and Iran to spare civilians as their conflict escalates and alarm grows over the death toll.
Delivering a national address, Khamenei described Trump’s request for Iran’s unconditional surrender as unacceptable, while criticizing Israel for launching its military campaign while Iran was engaged in nuclear talks with the United States.
“This nation will never surrender to any imposiotion from anyone. America should know that any military intervention will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage,” he said.
Khamenei, in power since 1989 and the final arbiter of all matters of state in Iran, had earlier vowed the country would show no mercy towards Israel’s leaders.
Repeating similar threat, Iran’s Mission to the United Nation said Iran would not negotiate or accept peace under duress.
Writing in an X post, the Mission said: “No Iran’s official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of White House. The only thing more despicable as his (Trump) lies is his threat to take out Iran’s supreme leader.
“Iran does not negotiate under duress, shall not accept peace under duress, and certainly not with a has-been warmonger clinging to relevance. Iran shall respond to any threat with a counter-threat, and to any action with reciprocal measures.”
Meanwhile, Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, said their air force jets had destroyed Iran’s internal security headquarters after the army announced it was striking military targets in Tehran.
“Air Force jets have just destroyed the internal security headquarters of the Iranian regime, the main arm of repression of the Iranian dictator,” Katz said in a statement, vowing to “strike symbols of governance and hit the Ayatollah regime wherever it may be”.
Earlier, Israeli attacks destroyed two buildings making centrifuge components for Iran’s nuclear programme near Tehran, according to the UN nuclear watchdog.
“More than 50 Israeli Air Force fighter jets carried out a series of air strikes in the Tehran area over the past few hours,” the Israeli military said, adding that several weapons manufacturing facilities and a centrifuge production site were hit.
The strikes destroyed two buildings making centrifuge components for Iran’s nuclear programme in Karaj, a satellite city of Tehran, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
In another strike on a site in Tehran, “one building was hit where advanced centrifuge rotors were manufactured and tested”, the agency added in a post on X.
Israel’s attacks have hit nuclear and military facilities around Iran, as well as residential areas.
Finding fuel has become a problem in Iran, with long queues of cars waiting hours in front of petrol stations, a 40-year-old Iranian driver told AFP at the Iraqi border crossing of Bashmakh.
“There are shortages of rice, bread, sugar and tea,” said Fatah.
“People are shocked and distraught, they don’t know what they should do,” car dealer Shwan said via a messaging app.
