Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday the nation would never surrender and warned the United States of “irreparable damage” if it intervenes, while Israel said it had destroyed the internal security headquarters in Tehran.
Khamenei’s speech came six days into the conflict, with Trump saying he may or may not intervene in the conflict, while demanding Iran’s “unconditional surrender”.
The long-range blitz began Friday, when Israel launched a massive bombing campaign that prompted Iran to respond with missiles and drones.
“This nation will never surrender,” Khamenei said in a speech, in which he called Trump’s ultimatum “unacceptable”.
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“America should know that any military intervention will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage,” he said.
Khamenei, in power since 1989 and the final arbiter of all matters of state in Iran, had earlier vowed the country would show “no mercy” towards Israel’s leaders.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said air force jets had destroyed Iran’s internal security headquarters after the army announced it was striking military targets in Tehran.
“Air Force jets have just destroyed the internal security headquarters of the Iranian regime — the main arm of repression of the Iranian dictator,” Katz said in a statement, vowing to “strike symbols of governance and hit the Ayatollah regime wherever it may be”.
Earlier, Israeli attacks destroyed two buildings making centrifuge components for Iran’s nuclear programme near Tehran, according to the UN nuclear watchdog.
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“More than 50 Israeli Air Force fighter jets… carried out a series of air strikes in the Tehran area over the past few hours,” the Israeli military said, adding that several weapons manufacturing facilities and a centrifuge production site were hit.
Centrifuges are vital for uranium enrichment, the sensitive process that can produce fuel for reactors or, in highly extended form, the core of a nuclear warhead.
The strikes destroyed two buildings making centrifuge components for Iran’s nuclear programme in Karaj, a satellite city of Tehran, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
In another strike on a site in Tehran, “one building was hit where advanced centrifuge rotors were manufactured and tested”, the agency added in a post on X.
The IAEA has information that two centrifuge production facilities in Iran, the TESA Karaj workshop and the Tehran Research Center, were hit. Both sites were previously under IAEA monitoring and verification as part of the JCPOA.
— IAEA – International Atomic Energy Agency ⚛️ (@iaeaorg) June 18, 2025
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had launched hypersonic Fattah-1 missiles at Tel Aviv.
At the Tehran site, one building was hit where advanced centrifuge rotors were manufactured and tested. At Karaj, two buildings were destroyed where different centrifuge components were manufactured.
— IAEA – International Atomic Energy Agency ⚛️ (@iaeaorg) June 18, 2025
Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound and can manoeuvre mid-flight, making them harder to track and intercept.
No missile struck Tel Aviv overnight, though AFP photos showed Israel’s air defence systems activated to intercept missiles over the commercial hub.
Trump has fuelled speculation about US intervention, telling reporters on Tuesday: “I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”
