Iran maintained a defiant tone toward the United States and Israel after firing missiles at an American military base in Qatar on Monday, threatening to continue fighting as international efforts to promote diplomacy appeared to remain stalled.

In his first statement since the strike, which came as a retaliation for a US attack on Sunday against Iran’s nuclear facilities, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran was not the party that started the conflict and will not accept being targeted by anyone under any circumstances.

“We will not surrender to any aggression. This is the logic behind the Iranian nation,” read a post on the 86-year-old’s X account.

Khamenei has been in hiding since hostilities with Israel broke out last Friday, making negotiation efforts with the US especially difficult, CNN reported on Monday.

According to the report, US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff has remained in touch with his Iranian officials since the US attack, but both direct and indirect communications between the adversaries have stalled because, US officials believe, Khamenei must sign off on any major diplomatic decision.

An Iranian official told Reuters that Iran will continue its retaliation in response to the US attacks.

He said Iran has the necessary rationality to begin diplomacy after punishing the aggressor, adding that if the US seeks negotiations, Israeli and US attacks must stop.

Israel’s Channel 12 news reported Monday that sent messages to Tehran saying it’s aiming for an end to the air and missile war between the sides in the coming days.

Senior Israeli officials told the network that Israel is close to achieving its war aims, but still has options to escalate in the form of thousands of targets that will undermine Khamenei.

Israel sees Lebanon as its model for ensuring that Iran does not try to rebuild its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, according to the report. Since Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire in November, Israel has struck repeatedly at Hezbollah sites and operatives in order to ensure that the Iran-backed group is not able to carry out attacks or rebuild infrastructure in the near term.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday convened his security cabinet in Jerusalem to discuss the ongoing campaign against Iran, one of the ministers’ offices told The Times of Israel.

Iran’s widely expected retaliation against the Al Udeid air base in Qatar, which is used by local forces as well as American, British and other foreign troops.

Qatari and US officials said no casualties or injuries were sustained in the attack, and Iran reportedly warned Doha in advance, signaling its likely intent to avoid a further escalation.

After the attack, French President Emmanuel Macron called on X for a return to diplomacy to end “the spiral of chaos.”

Before Macron’s social media post, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France 2 television that the missile strikes, which had not caused any casualties, were a “dangerous escalation” and urged all sides to show restraint.

The UAE’s issued a statement condemning the Iranian missile fire “in the strongest terms.”

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry followed suit, expressing its “condemnation and denunciation, in the strongest terms possible, the aggression launched by Iran against the brotherly State of Qatar.”

The Palestinian Authority also condemned the attack, saying it considered it “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the sisterly State of Qatar and affirms its support for the State of Qatar and its brotherly people.”

Just before the explosions, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “We neither initiated the war nor seeking it. But we will not leave invasion to the great Iran without answer.”

Iran’s National Security Council confirmed it had attacked the base in Qatar, adding that its response did not “pose any threat” to its Gulf neighbor.

Qatar strongly condemned the Iranian attack, and said it had successfully intercepted the missiles, with no casualties or injuries reported. The base was evacuated earlier.

Doha considers the attack “a blatant violation of Qatar’s sovereignty and airspace, as well as a breach of international law and the United Nations Charter,” and “reserves the right to respond directly in a manner proportionate to the nature and scale of this flagrant aggression,” Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Majed Al Ansari, wrote in a statement.

Early Sunday morning local time, US forces bombed three crucial nuclear sites in Iran, at Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan, capping off more than a week of speculation over whether the United States would join Israel’s ongoing campaign aimed at thwarting Tehran’s plans to build a nuclear bomb.

US officials said the three sites were severely damaged in the attacks, although experts said it would take time to fully assess the impact of the strikes, in particular on Fordo, which is buried deep inside a mountain south of Tehran.

US President Donald Trump, in his first post since the Iranian attack on Al Udeid, did not mention the Iranian retaliation and instead blasted the media for allegedly claiming that Iran’s nuclear sites were not destroyed in the strikes.

“The sites that we hit in Iran were totally destroyed, and everyone knows it. Only the Fake News would say anything different in order to try and demean, as much as possible — And even they say they were ‘pretty well destroyed!’” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Israel launched preemptive series of strikes on Iranian nuclear and missile infrastructure, Iranian generals and nuclear scientists starting on June 13, after years of warning at the Islamic Republic was seeking to obtain nuclear bombs.

Iran, which avowedly seeks Israel’s destruction, has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it has enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, has obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel says it has recently taken steps toward weaponization.

Iran retaliated after Israel’s attacks by launching some 550 ballistic missiles and around 1,000 drones at Israel.

So far, Iran’s missile attacks have killed 24 people — all civilians — and wounded thousands in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals.

Some of the missiles have hit apartment buildings, a university and a hospital, causing heavy damage.