Iran's supreme leader makes first public appearance since Iran-Israel war started
Khamenei's absence during the war suggested heavy security for the Iranian leader, who has final say on all state matters. State TV in Iran showed him waving and nodding to the chanting crowd, which rose to its feet as he entered and sat at a mosque next to his office and residence in the capital, Tehran.
There was no immediate report on any public statement made. Iranian officials such as the Parliament speaker were present. Such events are always held under heavy security.
The 86-year-old Khamenei had spent the war in a bunker as threats to his life escalated.
After the U.S. inserted itself into the war by bombing three key nuclear sites in Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump sent warnings via social media to Khamenei that the U.S. knew where he was but had no plans to kill him, "at least for now.'
On June 26, shortly after a ceasefire began, Khamenei made his first public statement in days, saying in a prerecorded statement that Tehran had delivered a "slap to America's face' by striking a U.S. air base in Qatar, and warning against further attacks by the U.S. or Israel on Iran.
Trump replied, in remarks to reporters and on social media: "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.'
Iran has acknowledged the deaths of more than 900 people in the war, as well as thousands of injured. It also has confirmed serious damage to its nuclear facilities, and has denied access to them for inspectors with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Iran's president on Wednesday ordered the country to suspend its cooperation with the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, further limiting inspectors' ability to track a program that had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels. Israel launched the war fearing that Iran was trying to develop atomic weapons.
It remains unclear just how badly damaged the nuclear facilities are, whether any enriched uranium or centrifuges had been moved before the attacks, and whether Tehran still would be willing to continue negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program.
Israel also targeted defense systems, high-ranking military officials, and atomic scientists. In retaliation, Iran fired more than 550 ballistic missiles at Israel, most of them intercepted, killing 28 people and causing damage in many areas.
The ceremony that Khamenei hosted Saturday was a remembrance of the 7th century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Hussein. Shiites represent over 10% of the world's 1.8 billion Muslims, and they view Hussein as the rightful successor to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Hussein's death in battle at the hands of Sunnis at Karbala, south of Baghdad, created a rift in Islam and continues to play a key role in shaping Shiite identity.
In predominantly Shiite Iran, red flags represented Hussein's blood, and black funeral tents and clothes represented mourning. Processions of chest-beating and self-flagellating men demonstrated fervor. Some sprayed water over the mourners in the intense heat.
NetBlocks, a global internet monitor, reported late Saturday on X that there was a "major disruption to internet connectivity' in Iran. It said the disruption corroborated widespread user reports of problems accessing the internet. The development comes just weeks after authorities shut down telecoms during the war.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab Times
7 hours ago
- Arab Times
Israeli airstrikes kill 38 Palestinians in Gaza as truce negotiating team heads to Qatar
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip, July 6, (AP): Israeli airstrikes killed at least 38 Palestinians in Gaza, hospital officials said on Sunday, as Israel was sending a ceasefire negotiating team to Qatar ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's White House visit for talks toward a deal. U.S. President Donald Trump, who will meet with Netanyahu on Monday, has floated a plan for an initial 60-day ceasefire that would include a partial release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for an increase in humanitarian supplies allowed into Gaza. The proposed truce calls for talks on ending the 21-month war altogether. Separately, an Israeli official said the security Cabinet late Saturday approved sending aid into northern Gaza, where civilians suffer from acute food shortages. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the decision with the media, declined to give more details. Northern Gaza has seen just a trickle of aid enter since Israel ended the latest ceasefire in March. The Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's closest aid distribution site is near the Netzarim corridor south of Gaza City that separates the territory's north and south. In Yemen, a spokesperson for the Iran-backed Houthi rebels announced in a prerecorded message that the group had launched ballistic missiles targeting Israel's Ben Gurion airport overnight. Israel's military said they were intercepted. Israeli strikes hit two houses in Gaza City, killing 20 Palestinians and wounding 25 others, according to Mohammed Abu Selmia, director of Shifa Hospital, which serves the area. In southern Gaza, Israeli strikes killed 18 Palestinians in Muwasi, an area on the Mediterranean coast where thousands of displaced people live in tents, officials at Nasser Hospital in the nearby city of Khan Younis told The Associated Press. It said two families were among the dead. "My brother, his wife, his four children, my cousin's son and his daughter. ... Eight people are gone,' said Saqer Abu Al-Kheir as people gathered on the sand for prayers and burials. Israel's military had no immediate comment on the individual strikes but said it struck 130 targets across Gaza in the past 24 hours. It claimed its strikes targeted Hamas command and control structures, storage facilities, weapons, and launchers, and that they killed a number of militants in northern Gaza. Ahead of the indirect talks with Hamas in Qatar, Netanyahu's office asserted that the militant group was seeking "unacceptable' changes to the ceasefire proposal. Hamas, which gave a "positive' response late Friday to the latest U.S. proposal, has sought guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Previous negotiations have stalled over Hamas demands of guarantees that further negotiations would lead to the war's end, while Netanyahu has insisted Israel would resume fighting to ensure the group's destruction. The ministry, which is under Gaza's Hamas government, does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The U.N. and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.
Arab Times
8 hours ago
- Arab Times
US tariffs on European goods threaten to shake up the world's largest trade relationship
FRANKFURT, Germany, July 6, (AP): The European Union expects to find out on Monday whether President Donald Trump will impose punishing tariffs on America's largest trade partner in a move economists have warned would have repercussions for companies and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. Trump imposed a 20% import tax on all EU-made products in early April as part of a set of tariffs targeting countries with which the United States has a trade imbalance. Hours after the nation-specific duties took effect, he put them on hold until July 9 at a standard rate of 10% to quiet financial markets and allow time for negotiations. Expressing displeasure the EU's stance in trade talks, however, Trump said he would increase the tariff rate for European exports to 50%, which could make everything - from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals - much more expensive in the U.S. The EU's executive commission, which handles trade issues for the bloc's 27-member nations, said its leaders hope to strike a deal with the Trump administration. Without one, the EU said it was prepared to retaliate with tariffs on hundreds of American products, ranging from beef and auto parts to beer and Boeing airplanes. Here are important things to know about trade between the United States and the European Union. The EU's executive commission describes the trade between the U.S. and the EU as "the most important commercial relationship in the world.' The value of EU-U.S. trade in goods and services amounted to 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in 2024, or an average of 4.6 billion euros a day, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat. The biggest U.S. export to Europe is crude oil, followed by pharmaceuticals, aircraft, automobiles, and medical and diagnostic equipment. Europe's biggest exports to the U.S. are pharmaceuticals, cars, aircraft, chemicals, medical instruments, and wine and spirits. Trump has complained about the EU's 198 billion-euro trade surplus in goods, which shows Americans buy more stuff from European businesses than the other way around. However, American companies fill some of the gap by outselling the EU when it comes to services such as cloud computing, travel bookings, and legal and financial services. The U.S. services surplus took the nation's trade deficit with the EU down to 50 billion euros ($59 billion), which represents less than 3% of overall U.S.-EU trade. Before Trump returned to office, the U.S. and the EU maintained a generally cooperative trade relationship and low tariff levels on both sides. The U.S. rate averaged 1.47% for European goods, while the EU's averaged 1.35% for American products. But the White House has taken a much less friendly posture toward the longstanding U.S. ally since February. Along with the fluctuating tariff rate on European goods Trump has floated, the EU has been subject to his administration's 50% tariff on steel and aluminum and a 25% tax on imported automobiles and parts. Trump administration officials have raised a slew of issues they want to see addressed, including agricultural barriers such as EU health regulations that include bans on chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-treated beef. Trump has also criticized Europe's value-added taxes, which EU countries levy at the point of sale this year at rates of 17% to 27%. But many economists see VAT as trade-neutral since they apply to domestic goods and services as well as imported ones. Because national governments set the taxes through legislation, the EU has said they aren't on the table during trade negotiations. "On the thorny issues of regulations, consumer standards and taxes, the EU and its member states cannot give much ground,' Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Germany's Berenberg bank, said. "They cannot change the way they run the EU's vast internal market according to U.S. demands, which are often rooted in a faulty understanding of how the EU works.' Economists and companies say higher tariffs will mean higher prices for U.S. consumers on imported goods. Importers must decide how much of the extra tax costs to absorb through lower profits and how much to pass on to customers. Mercedes-Benz dealers in the U.S. have said they are holding the line on 2025 model year prices "until further notice.' The German automaker has a partial tariff shield because it makes 35% of the Mercedes-Benz vehicles sold in the U.S. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but the company said it expects prices to undergo "significant increases' in coming years. Simon Hunt, CEO of Italian wine and spirits producer Campari Group, told investment analysts that prices could increase for some products or stay the same depending what rival companies do. If competitors raise prices, the company might decide to hold its prices on Skyy vodka or Aperol aperitif to gain market share, Hunt said. Trump has argued that making it more difficult for foreign companies to sell in the U.S. is a way to stimulate a revival of American manufacturing. Many companies have dismissed the idea or said it would take years to yield positive economic benefits. However, some corporations have proved willing to shift some production stateside. France-based luxury group LVMH, whose brands include Tiffany & Co., Luis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Moet & Chandon, could move some production to the United States, billionaire CEO Bernaud Arnault said at the company's annual meeting in April. Arnault, who attended Trump's inauguration, has urged Europe to reach a deal based on reciprocal concessions. "If we end up with high tariffs, ... we will be forced to increase our U.S.-based production to avoid tariffs,' Arnault said. "And if Europe fails to negotiate intelligently, that will be the consequence for many companies. ... It will be the fault of Brussels, if it comes to that.' Some forecasts indicate the U.S. economy would be more at risk if the negotiations fail. Without a deal, the EU would lose 0.3% of its gross domestic product and U.S. GDP would fall 0.7%, if Trump slaps imported goods from Europe with tariffs of 10% to 25%, according to a research review by Bruegel, a think tank in Brussels. Given the complexity of some of the issues, the two sides may arrive only at a framework deal before Wednesday's deadline. That would likely leave a 10% base tariff, as well as the auto, steel and aluminum tariffs in place until details of a formal trade agreement are ironed out. The most likely outcome of the trade talks is that "the U.S. will agree to deals in which it takes back its worst threats of 'retaliatory' tariffs well beyond 10%,' Schmieding said. "However, the road to get there could be rocky.' The U.S. offering exemptions for some goods might smooth the path to a deal. The EU could offer to ease some regulations that the White House views as trade barriers. "While Trump might be able to sell such an outcome as a 'win' for him, the ultimate victims of his protectionism would, of course, be mostly the U.S. consumers,' Schmieding said.
Arab Times
8 hours ago
- Arab Times
Ship attacked in Red Sea off Yemen with gunfire, rocket-propelled grenades
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, July 6, (AP): A ship came under attack Sunday in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen by armed men firing guns and launching rocket-propelled grenades, a group overseen by the British military said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which comes as tensions remain high in the Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war and after the Iran-Israel war and airstrikes by the United States targeting Iranian nuclear sites. The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said that an armed security team on the unidentified vessel had returned fire and that the "situation is ongoing.' It described the attack as happening some 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Hodeida, Yemen, which is held by the country's Houthi rebels. "Authorities are investigating,' it said. Ambrey, a private maritime security firm, issued an alert saying that a merchant ship had been "attacked by eight skiffs while transiting northbound in the Red Sea.' It said it believed the attack was ongoing. Ambrey later said the ship also had been attacked by bomb-carrying drone boats, which could mark a major escalation in the region. It said two drone boats struck the ship, while another two had been destroyed by the armed guards on board. The U.S. Navy's Mideast-based 5th Fleet referred questions to the military's Central Command, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Houthi rebels have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group's leadership has described as an effort to end Israel's offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The group's al-Masirah satellite news channel acknowledged the attack occurred, but offered no other comment on it as it aired a speech by its secretive leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi. However, Ambrey said the vessel targeted met "the established Houthi target profile," without elaborating. Between November 2023 and January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually. The Houthis paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the U.S. launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March. That ended weeks later, and the Houthis haven't attacked a vessel, though they have continued occasional missile attacks targeting Israel. On Sunday, the group claimed launching a missile at Israel which the Israeli military said it intercepted. Meanwhile, a wider, decade-long war in Yemen between the Houthis and the country's exiled government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, remains in a stalemate. The Yemeni Coast Guard, which is loyal to the exiled government, has engaged in a firefight with at least one vessel in the Red Sea in the past as well. Pirates from Somalia also have operated in the region, though typically they've sought to capture vessels either to rob or ransom their crews.
