Trump claims he prevented the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the hands of American or Israeli forces
President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at Iran’s’s supreme leader for continuing to beat the rhetorical war drum rather than express gratitude for Trump’s decision not to order his assassination at the hands of American and Israeli forces during his country’s 12-day war with Israel this month.
In a Truth Social post, the president groused that Ayatollah Al Khamenei, the octogenarian cleric who has headed Iran’s religious fundamentalist government since 1989, had boasted publicly of having won that short conflict, calling the Iranian leader’s claim “a lie.”
“As a man of great faith, he is not supposed to lie. 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, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life,” Trump said.
He added: “I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!’”
Trump also suggested that Khamenei should be expressing gratitude for the president’s role in pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to recall Israel Air Force fighters in the hours before a cease-fire between Israel and Iran went into effect earlier this week, claiming that those planes “were heading directly to Tehran, looking for a big day, perhaps the final knockout!”
“Tremendous damage would have ensued, and many Iranians would have been killed. It was going to be the biggest attack of the War, by far,” Trump added.
Continuing, Trump claimed that he’d spent “the last few days” working on how to lift longstanding — and in his words, “BITING” — U.S. sanctions on Tehran to enable the country to have “much better chance to Iran at a full, fast, and complete recovery.”
But he further complained that Khamenei’s “statement of anger, hatred, and disgust” had caused him to have “immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more.”
“Iran has to get back into the World Order flow, or 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,” he said, adding later that Tehran’s leadership had “no hope” and things would “only get worse” until they “realize that you often get more with HONEY than you do with VINEGAR.”
Right after Trump addressed reporters on his Supreme Court win Friday, he took to Truth Social to scold the ayatollah. (AFP/Getty)
The president’s pugnacious outburst against Iran’s de facto leader came just days after American B-2 stealth bombers dropped more than a dozen 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs onto a trio of Iranian nuclear sites in what was the largest military action against Tehran since a failed mission to rescue hostages held at the then-American embassy there in 1979.
Trump has claimed the bombing runs — plus dozens of cruise missiles launched from an American guided missile submarine — “obliterated” the Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan nuclear facilities as part of what American officials called “Operation Midnight Hammer.”
The Trump administration has hoped that the strikes that it conducted could force Iran to accept US conditions and stop taking steps toward obtaining a nuclear weapon.
But the Iranian parliament voted on Wednesday to fast-track a proposal to effectively stp cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear oversight agency.
The United States had initially planned to conduct a sixth round of negotiations before Israel struck Iran.
Ahead of the Trump administration conducting its strikes on Saturday, it notified Iran through intermediaries that the strikes would be limited to notify the regime that strikes would be limited and that the United States would not accept any uranium enrichment.
At the same time, administration officials have discussed a plan to lure Iran back to the negotiating table including an option to have Arab nations investing $20-30 billion in a non-enrichment nuclear program for Iran for energy purposes while also allowing Iran to access $6 billion sitting in foreign bank accounts that it current cannot access, as well as lifting some foreign sanctions. (independent.co.uk)