Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi defined today “significant” damage to the nuclear plants of his country caused by the 12 -day war with Israel, adding that Tehran began to evaluate the impact of the conflict.
“The experts of the organization for atomic (Iranian) energy are currently leading a detailed evaluation of the damages,” he declared to the state television, adding that “the discussion on the request for compensation for damages” is now at the top of the government agenda.
Meanwhile Ali Khamenei he re -emerged from the darkness in which he had been wrapped for days and He showed himself in a video to the Iranian public to declare “victory” over the United States and Israel.
“The Israeli regime, under the blows of the Islamic Republic, has almost collapsed and was crushed”, his words in the video of a few minutes broadcast by the state television, and probably shot in the bunker where he still hides. It is the first message of the Iranian leader since the fire with Israel entered into force. And the decision to break the silence came when many began to wonder what happened to the supreme guide, arousing alarm both among the ranks of politics and in public opinion.
“Iran will never give up on the United States”reiterated Khameini, describing the bombings against the American bases in Qatar and Iraq as a “slap in America”, and promising a new launch of missiles if Washington decides to attack again. The leader then turned directly to Donald Trump, accusing him of having minimized the impact of the attack against the air base of Al Udeid, Qatar, the largest in the United States in the Middle East: a raid that for Khamenei caused serious damage, while the American president had liquidated him as “very weak” and without being victims. For Khamemei, then, Trump “exaggerated” the impact of US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites: “There was nothing significant,” he assured turning to the nation. A few hours earlier the CIA had instead declared that they had the evidence that the sites are devastated by the US bombs and that “it will take years to reconstruct them”.
Like the last time he appeared on video, on June 18 during the Israelis raids, Khamenei appeared sitting, with a clear brown tent behind him, next to the flag of the Islamic Republic on his right and a portrait of Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the 1979 revolution, on his left. Ayatollah appeared quiet and marked his words in a calm and assertive way. Removed the veil therefore from what was becoming a real mystery, with the supreme guide who had in fact disappeared from the radar for about a week, unreachable also by many of his loyalists.
Also feeding the rumors about his possible killing during Israel raids. Khamenei in reality should still be in a bunker in a very secret location where it was hidden since the attacks began on 13 June, because the Jewish state “could still try to kill him, even during a ceased fire”, says the political analyst Hamzeh Safavi, son of a general of the revolution’s guards. The supreme guide, at the height of the Islamic Republic since 1989, would still be continuing to govern the country, despite extreme security protocols, including limited contacts with the outside world.
Meanwhile, Tehran continues repression of any form of dissent by the regime. During the 12 days of conflict, the authorities of the Islamic Republic arrested at least 700 people accused of being “Mercenaries of Israel”, of being part of “espionage and sabotage networks”. Among them there are also European citizens and there is no news of the political prisoners transferred to “secret or illegal places of detention, isolated from the outside world” after the Israel raid that hit the prison of Evin, north of the capital.
In the meantime, the Iranian leaders have to have the right to “use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes”, while the Council of Guardians of the Revolution, the supreme executive body of Iran, has ratified the law approved by Parliament for the suspension of cooperation on Iranian nuclear programs with Aiea, the UN atomic agency, after the Islamic Republic has accused the director of the Argentine, Rafael Grossi, to be an accomplice of Israel.