Donald Trump brags he saved Iran leader from ‘ugly death' with order to Israel
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other Iranian officials have claimed that the US and Israel backed down from the conflict after Tehran struck a military base in Doha, Qatar
Donald Trump has claimed he saved Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from an "ugly" and disgraceful death after the Supreme Leader claimed victory over the "American regime".
Iranian officials have been presenting last week's ceasefire to the public as a defeat against the US and Israel aggression against the country, which started on Friday, June 13 and continued for 12 gruelling days.
The clearly upset president slammed Khamenei for the claims, taking to his Truth Social platform to say: "I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH.
"And he does not have to say, 'THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!"
Trump claims that he saved the life of the political and spiritual patriarch, who is revered by many Shi'a Muslims in the Middle East, by ordering Israeli jets to do a U-turn while en route to assassinate him.
Iranian leaders have claimed that their response to the bombing of their nuclear sites, which was the targeting of a US army base in Doha, was the decisive blow that helped them win the war. However, Tehran did admit that the attacks against them had caused "excessive" damage to the nuclear programme.
According to Trump, he saved the Ayatollah's life because he "would not let Israel, or the US Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life".
He explained: "In fact, in the final act of the War, I demanded that Israel bring back a very large group of planes, which were heading directly to Tehran, looking for a big day, perhaps the final knockout!"
He added: "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."
He also accused Khamenei of wilfully lying to the people of "war-torn" Iran.
"Why would the so-called 'Supreme Leader,' Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war torn Country of Iran, say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the War with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie, it is not so," he said. "As a man of great faith, he is not supposed to lie."
But some experts believe it is Trump who is wilfully lying about the extent of the damage caused. His boast that he "obliterated" Iranian nuclear bunkers has been deemed "frankly absurd" by an expert, who is adamant the president "couldn't possibly know."
The White House has been forced to defend a report issued by the Defence Intelligence Agency, which casts doubt on Trump's claims he "completely and fully obliterated" Iran's deeply buried Fordo uranium enrichment plant.
US B-2 stealth bombers dropped several 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, causing the entrance to collapse and damage to the structure, but the underground infrastructure was not destroyed, according to the assessment.
Anthony Glees, an academic in security and defence and a lecturer at the University of Buckingham, believes that unless Trump could "look deep into the caves", he "couldn't possibly know the damage" caused.
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