President Trump said he saved Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from his death by securing a peace deal between Iran and Israel, and lambasted him for declaring victory.
“Why would the so-called ‘Supreme Leader,’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war torn Country of Iran, say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the War with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie, it is not so,” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post Friday.
“As a man of great faith, he is not supposed to lie. His Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life,” he said. “I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!’”
In several social media posts on Thursday, the ayatollah proclaimed victory over Israel and the U.S. It was his first public comments since a ceasefire was struck between Israel and Iran.
The ceasefire came after the U.S. launched strikes on three key nuclear sites in Iran: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
“My congratulations on our dear Iran’s victory over the U.S. regime. The U.S. 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,” the leader of the Islamic Republic in one post.
“The Islamic Republic delivered a heavy slap to the U.S.’s face. It attacked and inflicted damage on the Al-Udeid Air Base, which is one of the key U.S. bases in the region,” he said in another post.
Iran launched strikes at the U.S. military base in Qatar, but no damage was done.
Mr. Trump said he demanded Israel bring its planes back that were heading to Tehran, which could’ve caused “tremendous damage” and deaths if he had not intervened.
The president said he was working on removing sanctions on Iran, “but, no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more.”
“Iran has to get back into the World Order flow, or things will only get worse for them. They are always so angry, hostile, and unhappy, and look at what it has gotten them - A burned out, blown up Country, with no future, a decimated Military, a horrible Economy, and DEATH all around them,” he said. “They have no hope, and it will only get worse! I wish the leadership of Iran would realize that you often get more with HONEY than you do with VINEGAR.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously responded to the ayatollah’s comments, saying it was Iran’s way of saving face.
“Look, we saw the ayatollah’s video. And when you have a totalitarian regime, you have to save face,” she said. “I think any common-sense, open-minded person knows the truth about the precision strikes on Saturday night.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.