Iran's supreme leader speaks out with scathing message to US in first speech since ceasefire

Ayatollah Khamenei has broken his silence following Iran's short-lived ceasefire with Israel.

Khamenei has reportedly been hiding out in a bunker of late in the wake of ongoing tensions with Iran, the US, and Israel, but has now made a public announcement via social media.

In the post, the supreme leader claimed victory over Israel and branded the US' attacks on the country's nuclear sites on June 21 as unsuccessful.

He penned on Twitter today (June 26): "My congratulations on our dear Iran’s victory over the US regime.

"The US regime entered the war directly because it felt that if it didn’t, the Zionist regime would be completely destroyed. It entered the war in an effort to save that regime but achieved nothing."

Khamenei added in a follow-up tweet: "The Islamic Republic delivered a heavy slap to the US’s face. It attacked and inflicted damage on the Al-Udeid Air Base, which is one of the key US bases in the region."

Iran ordered air strikes on the Qatar air base on Monday (June 23) in retaliation to Saturday night's attack. It isn't thought that there we any casualties.

Khamenei has also addressed Iranian citizens in a televised statement in the last few minutes where he branded President Trump's comments on the US attack as 'unusually exaggerated', BBC reports, adding that Operation Midnight Hammer 'failed to achieve anything significant'.

The supreme leader's comments come after there were reports that America's attack on Iran wasn't as successful as Trump made it out to be.

Earlier this week, CNN said it had obtained an initial assessment produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency that said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed.

Trump proceeded to slam the reports, writing on Truth Social: "FAKE NEWS CNN, TOGETHER WITH THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES, HAVE TEAMED UP IN AN ATTEMPT TO DEMEAN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY STRIKES IN HISTORY."

He added: "THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! BOTH THE TIMES AND CNN ARE GETTING SLAMMED BY THE PUBLIC!"

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also refuted the reports and insisted they were 'flat-out wrong'.

"The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program," Leavitt continued.

"Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration."