Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday rejected Donald Trump's claim that the United States had destroyed the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities in an airstrike in June this year, asking the US President to "keep dreaming". In a statement on his official website, he also rejected Trump's offer of talks, saying American intervention is "inappropriate, wrong and coercive".
"The US president proudly says they bombed and destroyed Iran’s nuclear industry. Very well, keep dreaming!" the statement read, as reported by The Times of Israel. "Trump says he is a dealmaker, but if a deal is accompanied by coercion and its outcome is predetermined, it is not a deal but rather an imposition and bullying."
Khamenei's Monday's remark comes weeks after Iran's nuclear chief admitted that 'some of' Tehran's nuclear facilities were destroyed in US strikes. Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, however, has said that Tehran would rebuilt its facilities.
"It is quite normal that during a military attack on facilities, they incur damage and the infrastructure is destroyed," Eslami told Sky News in Vienna. "What is important is that science, know-how, technology, and industry are long-standing and deeply-rooted in the history of Iran."
In June this year, the US destroyed three Iranian nuclear facilities - Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan - under Operation Midnight Hammer. This was done after Israel, which had previously launched airstrikes in Iran, urged the US to use its Northrop B-2 Spirit stealth bombers to destroy the nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
The US believes that the strikes have delayed Iran's nuclear programme by one to two years. Trump has also called the US strikes a success and said that Iran is no longer a 'bully' in the Middle East. "We dropped 14 bombs on Iran's key nuclear facilities. Totally, as I said originally, obliterating them, and that's been confirmed," said the Republican president during his visit to Israeli Knesset last week.
