Just hours after President Donald Trump wrapped up his visit to the Middle East, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched a scathing verbal attack on both the United States and Israel. He accused Trump of deceit and reiterated hostile rhetoric against the Jewish state.
“Trump said he wants to use power for peace. He’s lying,” Khamenei posted on X. He added, “Some of the remarks made during the US President’s trip to the region aren’t even worth a response at all. The level of those remarks is so low that they are a source of shame for the American nation.”
Since the 1980s, the United States has labeled Iran a state sponsor of terrorism. In his remarks, Khamenei described Israel, a close U.S. ally in the region, as a “cancerous tumor” that should be eliminated.
He also condemned Sunni Arab nations that have close ties with Washington, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar. “This failed model, where Arab states are told they can’t survive ten days without US support, is being imposed again. But it will collapse, and America will leave this region.”
The Iranian leader, now 86, claimed that the U.S. strategy was to foster dependence among its regional partners. “The US wants these countries unable to function without it — that’s the message in their behavior and their proposals.”
He further accused the U.S. of backing violence in Gaza and other conflict zones. “The US has used its power to massacre in Gaza, to stoke war wherever possible, and to arm its mercenaries,” Khamenei said. Iran maintains close ties with Hamas, which orchestrated a deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing over 1,200 people, including American citizens.
During his visit to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, Trump had harsh words for Iran, blaming it for much of the turmoil across the region.
“The biggest and most destructive of these forces is the regime in Iran, which has caused unthinkable suffering in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen and beyond,” said Trump while in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
An expert on Iran based in Washington, D.C., commented that Iran’s military has been significantly weakened by Israeli actions and that there is growing internal dissatisfaction within the country. According to this expert, Trump is in a strong position to pressure Iran into limiting its nuclear ambitions.
Trump, during his speech, emphasized the need for Iran to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“While you have been constructing the world’s tallest skyscrapers in Jeddah and Dubai, Tehran’s 1979 landmarks are collapsing into rubble,” he said. “[Iran’s] corrupt water mafia . . . causes droughts and empty riverbeds. They get rich.”
