Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that his country will not accept US President Donald Trump’s call for an unconditional surrender.
In his first remarks outside of social media posts since Friday, when he delivered a speech broadcast on state media after Israel began bombarding Iran, Khamenei said peace or war could not be imposed on the Islamic Republic.
“Wise individuals who know Iran, its people, and its history never speak to this nation with the language of threats, because the Iranian nation is not one to surrender,” he said in the low-resolution video aired on state TV, his voice echoing. “Americans should know that any military involvement by the US will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage to them.”
Khamenei also said that Israel made a “huge mistake” in attacking Israel, and “will be punished for that.”
Iran followed a similar sequence in releasing Khamenei’s statement before the video was aired, perhaps as a security measure. His location is not known and was impossible to discern from a tight shot that showed only beige curtains, an Iranian flag and a portrait of Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Khamenei’s immediate predecessor who died in 1989.
Israel on Friday launched a campaign of airstrikes in Iran to decimate the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, which Jerusalem characterized as an imminent, existential threat. Iran has responded with deadly barrages of ballistic missiles at civilian population centers and military targets in Israel.
In this new video message from #Iran's regime's supreme leader, the video quality is notably lower than usual coming from Khamenei's Office.
— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) June 18, 2025
The US says it has so far only taken indirect actions in the conflict, including helping to shoot down missiles fired toward Israel, but it’s begun to bolster its forces in the region, with Trump reportedly weighing taking a direct role in Israel’s strikes.
Trump called Tuesday for Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” and said Washington knows the exact whereabouts of Khamenei but was holding off on assassinating him “for now.”
Earlier Wednesday, Iran’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Ali Bahreini called Trump’s remarks “completely unwarranted and very hostile. We cannot ignore them. We are vigilant about what Trump is saying. We will put it in our calculations and assessments.”
Speaking about Israeli strikes, he said Iran was “resolute” in responding, and would continue to do so “very, very, very seriously and strongly,” adding: “Nobody should expect Iran to show any kind of restraint.”
Speaking to the Human Rights Council, Bahreini said the Israeli attacks represented an act of “war against humanity” and criticized countries for not condemning them.
“We are hearing almost nothing from those self-proclaimed champions of human rights,” he said, calling on countries to condemn acts that he said exposed people to the risk of hazardous leaks.
“The deliberate targeting of Iran’s nuclear facilities not only constitutes a grave violation of international law and UN Charter but also risks [exposure] of all people in our neighborhood to possible hazardous leak. This is not an act of war against our country, it is war against humanity,” said Bahreini.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog group, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has confirmed Israeli strikes on both the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and nuclear facilities in Isfahan, but said there have been no increases in radiation in the surrounding areas — though it warned there was a risk of contamination inside Natanz.
Iran, which has vowed to destroy the Jewish state, insists that its nuclear program is peaceful; however, it has been enriching uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, has obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and has greatly expanded its ballistic missile capabilities.
