TEHRAN, July 6: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attended his first public appearance since the 12-day war between Israel and Iran began, attending a mourning ceremony on the eve of Ashoura. Khamenei’s absence during the war suggested that he had been in seclusion in a bunker, something not acknowledged by state media. State TV in Iran showed him waving and nodding to the chanting crowd, which rose to its feet as he entered and sat at a mosque next to his office and residence in Tehran.
After the US bombed three key nuclear sites in Iran, US President Donald Trump sent warnings via social media to the 86-year-old Khamenei that the US knew where he was but had no plans to kill him, “at least for now.” On June 26, shortly after a ceasefire began, Khamenei made his first public statement in days, saying in a prerecorded statement that Tehran had delivered a “slap to America’s face” by striking a US air base in Qatar and warning against further attacks by the US or Israel on Iran.
Iran has acknowledged the deaths of more than 900 people in the war, as well as thousands of injured. It has confirmed serious damage to its nuclear facilities and denied access to them for inspectors with the U.N. nuclear watchdog. Iran’s president ordered the country to suspend its cooperation with the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, further limiting inspectors’ ability to track a program that had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels.
In retaliation, Iran fired more than 550 ballistic missiles at Israel, most of them intercepted, killing 28 people and causing damage in many areas. The ceremony commemorated the 7th century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein, which created a rift in Islam and continues to shape Shiite identity. (AP)
