Iran condemns Trump's 'disrespectful and unacceptable' comments on Khamenei
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned Saturday the "disrespectful and unacceptable" comments from Donald Trump, after the US president claimed to have saved Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from an "ugly and ignominious death".
"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 supporters," Mr Araghchi posted on his account on social media platform X.
"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," the foreign minister said.
The United States carried out strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites last weekend, with no consensus as to how effective they were.
With those strikes, Washington joined Israel's bombardments of Iran's nuclear programme in the 12-day conflict launched on 13 June.
The foreign minister's condemnation on Saturday came after Mr Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he had saved the Iranian leader from assassination, accusing Khamenei of ingratitude.
"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," Mr Trump posted.
"I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, 'THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!'"
Mr Trump also said that he had been working in recent days on the possible removal of sanctions against Iran, one of Tehran's main demands.
"But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more," Mr Trump added, exhorting Iran to return to the negotiating table.
Iran has denied it is set to resume nuclear talks with the United States, after Mr Trump said that negotiations would begin again next week.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
25 minutes ago
- Irish Times
US is again betting that installing ‘our sonuvabitch' will neutralise an adversary. It never does
In the surreal world of Donald Trump and Binyamin Netanyahu , war starts and ends on social media, with the flick of a post on Truth Social. Midnight Hammer, the name chosen by Washington for its June 22nd bombing raids on Iran , might have been better suited to a porn film. Everything in Sheriff Trump's wild west is oversized – the world's most expensive warplanes delivered the world's heaviest ordnance on the world's longest bombing raid constituting 'ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY STRIKES IN HISTORY'. Except it wasn't. In his inaugural address last January, Trump gave the impression he had learned from past errors, promising to 'measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end – and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into'. If Trump were capable of contemplation, he might ask himself why, roughly every 20 years, Israel and the US attempt to remake the Middle East, with catastrophic consequences. A brief reminder of past misadventures: READ MORE June 1982 Israel invades Lebanon with the goal of stopping attacks by the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Hundreds of Israeli soldiers and tens of thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians are killed. Israeli occupation forces remain in much of the country for 18 years, until they are driven out in humiliation by Hizbullah, an Iranian-backed Shia Muslim militia. March 2003 The US invades Iraq with the goal of destroying Saddam Hussein's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and more than 4,000 US troops are killed during the invasion, ensuing civil war and eight-year occupation, which costs more than $3 trillion. Iran becomes the main power in Iraq. June 13th, 2025 Binyamin Netanyahu begins bombing Iran, on the dubious pretext that Iran is about to make a nuclear weapon. Israel has never owned up to owning hundreds of nuclear warheads that it has never submitted for inspection. Trump, who doesn't follow through on his own ultimatums to Vladimir Putin , waits only three days of a two-week grace period before dropping 14 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs, or MOPs, on Iranian nuclear sites. Trump calls Iran 'the world's No 1 state sponsor of terror'. But these days, it is Trump's buddies, Putin and Netanyahu, who practise state terror against Ukraine and Gaza. If there really were no other way to spare the world from a hypothetical Iranian bomb, one might have concluded – as German chancellor Friedrich Merz did in an obscene remark – that Israel was 'doing our dirty work for us', or 'Drecksarbeit', as he put it. Nato secretary general Mark Rutte also praised the illegal attacks . Under Trump, the West has lost its moral compass. Painstaking negotiations, not brute force, are the only way to defuse a nuclear threat. Diplomacy achieved the 2015 accord known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action treaty (JCPOA) , which Iran abided by until Trump discarded the agreement at Netanyahu's urging. It was Netanyahu who commissioned the 1996 Clean Break report advocating the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, upon which US neocons based the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This month's war on Iran was reportedly inspired by Restoring Deterrence: Destabilising the Iranian Regime, a study by the British academic researcher Barak Seener, published by a rightwing think tank in London. The belief that we can neutralise an adversary by installing 'our sonuvabitch' is a dangerous, recurring delusion. In 1982 Israel and the US attempted to impose the soon-to-be slain Maronite militia leader Bachir Gemayel to lead Lebanon. In 2003 the US groomed Ahmad Chalabi , a corrupt banker who propagated the myth of Saddam's WMDs, for Baghdad. Now Israel dreams of restoring the Pahlavi dynasty, 46 years after the late Shah and his family were driven out by Islamic revolution. The Shah's son, Reza Pahlavi, now aged 64, visited Jerusalem with his mother Farah Diba at the invitation of the Israeli Likud cabinet minister Gila Gamliel in 2023. 'The Iranian people love Israel, and they want the Ayatollah regime to be replaced,' Gamaliel told the Jerusalem Post in March. Trump harbours the same fantasy: 'It's not politically correct to use the term 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime Change??? MIGA!!!' he posted on Truth Social. On June 23rd Reza Pahlavi predicted at a press conference in Paris that the Tehran regime would fall this year. Israel's heritage minister, Amihai Eliyahu of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, said , 'The fact that we are co-operating with the opposition in Iran today is a blessing.' After an estimated 800 Iranians and 30 Israelis were killed, Trump blithely congratulated his Israeli allies and the country he had just bombed for their 'Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence'. Hours later he lashed out at both for apparent ceasefire violations, saying they 'don't know what the f*** they are doing.' Trump flew to The Hague, where he was feted by royalty and fawned over by Nato's secretary general. Thirty-one of Nato's 32 member states – only Spain's socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, objected – caved in to Trump's long-time demand that they devote 5 per cent of GDP to defence. And those extra hundreds of billions had better be spent on US hardware. There was not a squeak of criticism for Russia's assault on Ukraine, because Trump hates it when you insult his buddies. He denounced corruption charges against Netanyahu as 'a witch hunt'. Trump directed his venom at 'FAKE NEWS CNN, TOGETHER WITH THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES' for reporting preliminary findings by the US Defence Intelligence Agency that 12 days of sound and fury had delayed Iran's nuclear programme by at best a few months. CIA director John Ratcliffe flew to Trump's rescue, insisting that Operation Midnight Hammer set back Iran's nuclear programme by years. We segued from the verge of a third world war into farce, with Trump, Netanyahu and Iran's supreme leader all claiming victory. Trump and Netanyahu must learn there is no such thing as a quick fix in the Middle East. We've come full circle to the original dilemma: negotiations or a new forever war.
Irish Independent
2 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Battling for survival, Hamas now faces local clans and doubts over Iran's support
©Reuters Short of commanders, deprived of much of its tunnel network and unsure of support from its ally Iran, Hamas is battling to survive in Gaza in the face of rebellious local clans and relentless Israeli military pressure. Hamas fighters are operating autonomously under orders to hold out as long as possible but the Islamist group is struggling to maintain its grip as Israel openly backs tribes opposing it, three sources close to Hamas said. Register for free to read this story Register and create a profile to get access to our free stories. You'll also unlock more free stories each week.
Irish Independent
2 hours ago
- Irish Independent
‘I saved him from a very ugly death' – Donald Trump rages at Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
US president Donald Trump yesterday lashed out at Iran's supreme leader for continuing to beat the rhetorical war drum rather than express gratitude for Mr 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 complained that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the octogenarian cleric who has led Iran's religious fundamentalist government since 1989, had boasted publicly of having won that short conflict, calling the Iranian leader's claim 'a lie'.
