Latest news with #AliShamkhani
Al Bawaba
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
'Assassinate the Mind': Iran's leader slams Israeli strike goals
ALBAWABA - Ali Shamkhani, a top political assistant to Iran's Supreme Leader, said that Israel's latest military action was an attempt to bring down Iran's government. He said the goal of the strike was to "assassinate the mind and topple power," but it didn't work out that way. Shamkhani said on his official account, "They came to kill the mind and bring down the authority, but the dawn that began with bullets ended with pleas for a ceasefire." His response was a reference to how strong the Iranian troops were against the Israeli attack, which was a surprise. Shamkhani praised Iran's reaction, calling it "rage and determination." He also praised the bravery of Iranian troops, saying they "wore shields with no backs" and compared them to Imam Ali. He also talked about an event that was going to happen on Saturday and said that it wasn't a goodbye but a promise to the future: "From every drop of blood, a thousand new leaders will rise," he said. Ali #Shamkhani, a senior security official of the Islamic Republic who was among the initial targets of #Israel 's attack—and whose death was later denied— 'They came to assassinate Reason and bring down Power, But the dawn that began with gunfire ended with pleas for a… — Samira Gharaei (@SamiraGharaei) June 27, 2025 There had been a lot of talk about Shamkhani's health before the comment. Since the Israeli attack on June 13, he has not been seen in public. Iranian officials stated that he was badly hurt, but local sources say that his injuries may have meant that his right leg had to be cut off. This event shows how many people were hurt by Iran's military leadership during the recent increase.
NBC News
5 days ago
- Politics
- NBC News
Trump said Iran's nuclear sites were 'obliterated' but questions remain about enriched uranium
But Jeffrey Lewis, an American expert in nuclear nonproliferation and a professor at the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said on X that he was 'unimpressed' by both the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran because they 'failed to target significant elements of Iran's nuclear materials and production infrastructure.' Iran's highly enriched uranium 'was largely stored in underground tunnels' near the Isfahan site, he said. But despite extensive American and Israeli attacks on the facility, he said, 'there does not seem to have been any effort to destroy these tunnels or the material that was in them.' He added that there had been 'no effort to strike the enormous underground facility next to Natanz where Iran can make more centrifuges and maybe do other things.' Satellite images taken two days before the strike on Fordo also showed 16 cargo trucks on an access road leading up to the complex. Released by Maxar Technologies, a U.S. defense contractor headquartered in Colorado, pictures taken the following day show the trucks had moved away from the site. Tehran is also signalling that its intent to achieve nuclear weapons is undimmed, maybe even strengthened. 'Even if the nuclear sites are destroyed, the game isn't over,' Ali Shamkhani, a top political, military and nuclear adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wrote on X on Sunday. 'Enriched materials, indigenous knowledge, political will remain.' An assessment by FilterLabs, which uses artificial intelligence and experts to monitor social media, also suggests that Iranians believed that they would not have been attacked if the country had a nuclear weapon. 'What we have started to see in the last few days is actually Iranians say this is the reason why we should have a nuclear weapon,' FilterLabs founder and CEO Jonathan Teubner told NBC News on Monday. 'That if they had one, they would be more protected.' 'The fundamental reality remains that military action alone can only roll back the programme by degrees, not eliminate it fully,' Darya Dolzikova, a senior research fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute think tank, said in an op-ed Sunday. The success of the American attacks, particularly at the Fordo plant, 'is not immediately apparent,' she wrote. 'Imagery can't show much about the damage down at the centrifuge enrichment hall, so the U.S. and Israel will be relying heavily on intelligence from inside the Iranian system.' But even if the destruction was widespread, 'Iran retains extensive expertise that will allow it to eventually reconstitute what aspects of the programme have been damaged or destroyed,' she said. 'The Iranian nuclear programme is decades old and draws on extensive Iranian indigenous expertise. The physical elimination of the programme's infrastructure — and even the assassination of Iranian scientists — will not be sufficient to destroy the latent knowledge that exists in the country.'
CNA
6 days ago
- Politics
- CNA
World awaits Iranian response after US hits nuclear sites
ISTANBUL/WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM: The world braced on Sunday (Jun 22) for Iran's response after the US attacked key Iranian nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution. With the damage visible from space after 30,000-pound US bunker-buster bombs crashed into the mountain above Iran's Fordow nuclear site, Tehran vowed to defend itself at all costs. It fired another volley of missiles at Israel that wounded scores of people and flattened buildings in Tel Aviv. The US State Department ordered employees' family members to leave Lebanon and advised citizens elsewhere in the region to keep a low profile or restrict travel. An advisory from the US Department of Homeland Security warned of a "heightened threat environment in the United States." Law enforcement in major US cities stepped up patrols and deployed additional resources to religious, cultural and diplomatic sites. Tehran has so far not followed through on its threats of retaliation against the United States, either by targeting US bases or trying to choke off global oil supplies, but that may not hold. Speaking in Istanbul, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said his country would consider all possible responses. There would be no return to diplomacy until it had retaliated, he said. "The US showed they have no respect for international law. They only understand the language of threat and force," he said. Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on X that the initiative was "now with the side that plays smart, avoids blind strikes. Surprises will continue!" US President Donald Trump, in a televised address, called the strikes "a spectacular military success" and boasted that Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities had been "completely and totally obliterated." But his own officials gave more nuanced assessments and, with the exception of satellite photographs appearing to show craters on the mountain above Iran's subterranean plant at Fordow, there has been no public accounting of the damage. The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said no increases in off-site radiation levels had been reported after the US strikes. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told CNN that it was not yet possible to assess the damage done underground. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow had been moved elsewhere before the attack. Reuters could not immediately corroborate the claim. Trump immediately called on Iran to forgo any retaliation, saying the government "must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier," he said. US Vice President JD Vance said Washington was not at war with Iran but with its nuclear programme, adding this had been pushed back by a very long time due to the US intervention. In a step towards what is widely seen as Iran's most effective threat to hurt the West, its parliament approved a move to close the Strait of Hormuz. Nearly a quarter of global oil shipments pass through the narrow waters that Iran shares with Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Iran's Press TV said closing the strait would require approval from the Supreme National Security Council, a body led by an appointee of Khamenei. Attempting to choke off Gulf oil by closing the strait could send global oil prices skyrocketing, derail the world economy and invite almost certain conflict with the US Navy's massive Fifth Fleet, based in the Gulf and tasked with keeping the strait open. Security experts have long warned a weakened Iran could also find other unconventional ways to strike back, such as bombings or cyberattacks. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in an interview on "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo," warned Iran against retaliation for the US strikes, saying such action would be "the worst mistake they've ever made." Rubio separately told CBS's "Face the Nation" talk show that the US has "other targets we can hit, but we achieved our objective." "There are no planned military operations right now against Iran," he later added, "unless they mess around." The UN Security Council was due to meet later on Sunday, diplomats said, at the request of Iran, which urged the 15-member body "to address this blatant and unlawful act of (US) aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms." DIVERGING WAR AIMS Israeli officials, who began the hostilities with a surprise attack on Iran on Jun 13, have increasingly spoken of their ambition to topple the hardline Shi'ite Muslim clerical establishment that has ruled Iran since 1979. US officials, many of whom witnessed Republican President George W Bush's popularity collapse following his disastrous intervention in Iraq in 2003, have stressed that they were not working to overthrow Iran's government. "This mission was not and has not been about regime change," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon. "The president authorised a precision operation to neutralise the threats to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear programme." Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump ally, said on NBC's "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker" program that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told him his country would no longer endure being under missile attack. "They're not going to live under threat from Iran anymore," Graham said. "Israel's made a decision. This regime is going to change in one of two ways: they're going to change their behavior, which I doubt, the regime itself, or the people are going to replace the regime.' Iranians contacted by Reuters described their fear at the prospect of an enlarged war involving the United States. "Our future is dark. We have nowhere to go - it's like living in a horror movie," Bita, 36, a teacher from the central city of Kashan, said before the phone line was cut. Much of Tehran, a capital city of 10 million people, has emptied out, with residents fleeing to the countryside to escape Israeli bombardment. Iranian authorities say more than 400 people have been killed since Israel's attacks began, mostly civilians. Israel's bombardment has scythed through much of Iran's military leadership with strikes targeted at bases and residential buildings where senior figures slept. Iran has been launching missiles back at Israel, killing at least 24 people over the past nine days, the first time its projectiles have penetrated Israel's defences in large numbers. The elite Revolutionary Guards said they had fired 40 missiles at Israel in the latest volley overnight. Air raid sirens sounded across most of Israel on Sunday, sending millions of people to safe rooms. In Tel Aviv, Aviad Chernovsky, 40, emerged from a bomb shelter to find his house had been destroyed in a direct hit. "It's not easy to live now in Israel (right now), but we are very strong. We know that we will win,' he said. Trump had veered between offering to end the war with diplomacy or to join it, at one point musing publicly about killing Iran's supreme leader. His decision ultimately to join the fight is the biggest foreign policy gamble of his career.
Otago Daily Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
World awaits Iran response to US strikes
The world is bracing for Iran's response after the U.S. attacked key Iranian nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution. With the damage visible from space after 30,000-pound U.S. bunker-buster bombs crashed into the mountain above Iran's Fordow nuclear site, Tehran vowed to defend itself at all costs. It fired another volley of missiles at Israel that wounded scores of people and flattened buildings in Tel Aviv. The U.S. State Department ordered employees' family members to leave Lebanon and advised citizens elsewhere in the region to keep a low profile or restrict travel. An advisory from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned of a "heightened threat environment in the United States." Law enforcement in major U.S. cities stepped up patrols and deployed additional resources to religious, cultural and diplomatic sites. Tehran has so far not followed through on its threats of retaliation against the United States - either by targeting U.S. bases or trying to choke off global oil supplies - but that may not hold. Speaking in Istanbul, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said his country would consider all possible responses. There would be no return to diplomacy until it had retaliated, he said. "The U.S. showed they have no respect for international law. They only understand the language of threat and force," he said. Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on X that the initiative was "now with the side that plays smart, avoids blind strikes. Surprises will continue!" U.S. President Donald Trump, in a televised address, called the strikes "a spectacular military success" and boasted that Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities had been "completely and totally obliterated." But his own officials gave more nuanced assessments and - with the exception of satellite photographs appearing to show craters on the mountain above Iran's subterranean plant at Fordow - there has been no public accounting of the damage. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said no increases in off-site radiation levels had been reported after the U.S. strikes. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told CNN that it was not yet possible to assess the damage done underground. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow had been moved elsewhere before the attack. Reuters could not immediately corroborate the claim. Trump immediately called on Iran to forgo any retaliation, saying the government "must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier," he said. U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Washington was not at war with Iran but with its nuclear programme, adding this had been pushed back by a very long time due to the U.S. intervention. In a step towards what is widely seen as Iran's most effective threat to hurt the West, its parliament approved a move to close the Strait of Hormuz. Nearly a quarter of global oil shipments pass through the narrow waters that Iran shares with Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Iran's Press TV said closing the strait would require approval from the Supreme National Security Council, a body led by an appointee of Khamenei. Attempting to choke off Gulf oil by closing the strait could send global oil prices skyrocketing, derail the world economy and invite almost certain conflict with the U.S. Navy's massive Fifth Fleet, based in the Gulf and tasked with keeping the strait open. Security experts have long warned a weakened Iran could also find other unconventional ways to strike back, such as bombings or cyberattacks. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in an interview on "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo," warned Iran against retaliation for the U.S. strikes, saying such action would be "the worst mistake they've ever made." Rubio separately told CBS's "Face the Nation" talk show that the U.S. has "other targets we can hit, but we achieved our objective." "There are no planned military operations right now against Iran," he later added, "unless they mess around." The U.N. Security Council was due to meet later on Sunday, diplomats said, at the request of Iran, which urged the 15-member body "to address this blatant and unlawful act of (US) aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms." DIVERGING WAR AIMS Israeli officials, who began the hostilities with a surprise attack on Iran on June 13, have increasingly spoken of their ambition to topple the hardline Shi'ite Muslim clerical establishment that has ruled Iran since 1979. U.S. officials, many of whom witnessed Republican President George W. Bush's popularity collapse following his disastrous intervention in Iraq in 2003, have stressed that they were not working to overthrow Iran's government. "This mission was not and has not been about regime change," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon. "The president authorised a precision operation to neutralise the threats to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear programme." Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump ally, said on NBC's "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker" program that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told him his country would no longer endure being under missile attack. "They're not going to live under threat from Iran anymore," Graham said. "Israel's made a decision. This regime is going to change in one of two ways: they're going to change their behavior, which I doubt, the regime itself, or the people are going to replace the regime.' Iranians contacted by Reuters described their fear at the prospect of an enlarged war involving the United States. "Our future is dark. We have nowhere to go - it's like living in a horror movie," Bita, 36, a teacher from the central city of Kashan, said before the phone line was cut. Much of Tehran, a capital city of 10 million people, has emptied out, with residents fleeing to the countryside to escape Israeli bombardment. Iranian authorities say more than 400 people have been killed since Israel's attacks began, mostly civilians. Israel's bombardment has scythed through much of Iran's military leadership with strikes targeted at bases and residential buildings where senior figures slept. Iran has been launching missiles back at Israel, killing at least 24 people over the past nine days, the first time its projectiles have penetrated Israel's defences in large numbers. The elite Revolutionary Guards said they had fired 40 missiles at Israel in the latest volley overnight. Air raid sirens sounded across most of Israel on Sunday, sending millions of people to safe rooms. In Tel Aviv, Aviad Chernovsky, 40, emerged from a bomb shelter to find his house had been destroyed in a direct hit. "It's not easy to live now in Israel (right now), but we are very strong. We know that we will win,' he said.
Shafaq News
6 days ago
- Politics
- Shafaq News
The game is not over: Iran's enriched uranium stockpile survives US strike
Shafaq News/ Iran declared on Sunday that its nuclear program remains operational and its enriched uranium stockpile intact, despite US airstrikes that targeted three of the country's most sensitive nuclear sites overnight. On X, Ali Shamkhani, senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, downplayed the impact of the attacks and warned that the confrontation was far from over. 'Even if facilities are destroyed, the game is not over. Enriched materials, indigenous knowledge, and political will remain,' he said. Shamkhani, who was severely injured in an Israeli strike on his home, emphasized that the initiative now rests with 'the side that plays smart and avoids blind strikes,' adding that 'surprises are ongoing.' Even if nuclear sites are destroyed, game isn't over, enriched materials, #indigenous_knowledge, #political_will remain. With #legitimate_defense right, political and operational initiative is now with the side that plays smart, avoids blind strikes. Surprises will continue! — علی شمخانی (@alishamkhani_ir) June 22, 2025 His comments came just hours after US President Donald Trump confirmed that American forces had launched Operation Midnight Hammer on Iran's underground uranium enrichment site at Fordow, as well as the nuclear facilities in Natanz and Isfahan.
