Press TV – June 26, 2025
Defiant Khamenei says Iran will ‘never surrender’ to the US
Iranian supreme leader says US strikes on nuclear sites ‘did nothing significant’ in first comments since a ceasefire was agreed with Israel.
Leader congratulates Iranian nation on victory, says Zionist regime was 'crush
ed'
In his message following the end of the Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic and the regime’s unilateral declaration of a ceasefire, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution on Thursday congratulated the Iranian nation on its glorious victory.
In a televised message, the third since June 13 when the Israeli regime launched its unprovoked aggression against the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the Zionist regime was crushed under the blows of the Iranian armed forces.
“I feel it is necessary to extend several congratulations to the great Iranian nation. First, congratulations on the victory over the fake Zionist regime. Despite all its noise and claims, the Zionist regime was nearly brought to its knees and crushed under the blows of the Islamic Republic,” Ayatollah Khamenei stated.
The Leader paid tribute to the martyrs of the recent events, including senior military commanders and scientists, whom he described as “truly and rightfully valuable” to the Islamic Republic and faithful in their service until martyrdom.
Ayatollah Khamenei said the idea of the Islamic Republic being capable of delivering such devastating strikes had never even crossed the enemy’s mind, but it did happen.
“We thank God for aiding our armed forces, who managed to breach their advanced multilayered defense systems and flatten large parts of their military and urban centers with powerful missile and weapons strikes,” he said.
Ayatollah Khamenei said it proves to the Zionist regime that aggression against the Islamic Republic comes with a high cost that it will have to pay, crediting both the armed forces and the people of the Islamic Republic for the glorious victory.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution also congratulated the nation on the victory against the United States, which carried out an unprovoked aggression against Iranian nuclear sites and received massive retaliation in the form of missile strikes on its biggest military base in the West Asia region – in Qatar.
“The US entered the war directly because it feared that if it didn’t, the Zionist regime would be completely destroyed,” the Leader said. “It intervened to save them but gained nothing from the war.”
He said the Americans attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities, an act that calls for legal prosecution in international courts.
Referring to the bluster of US President Donald Trump after the aggression and Iran's powerful retaliation, the Leader said the US president unusually exaggerated events, clearly showing how badly he needed to create a narrative.
“Anyone who heard his remarks could sense that behind those words lay a very different truth,” he said. “They failed to achieve their objectives, and they inflated their claims to conceal the reality.”
“Here, too, the Islamic Republic emerged victorious, delivering a harsh blow to the US, specifically targeting the Al Udeid base, one of its key regional bases, and inflicting damage,” he asserted.
He said the same people who had exaggerated their own actions tried to downplay this strike, claiming nothing had happened, when in fact, "something major had occurred."
Leader of the Islamic Republic added that the fact that the Islamic Republic can access vital American facilities in the region and strike them when deemed necessary is no small matter.
“It’s a major development and it can happen again in the future,” he warned. “If aggression is repeated, the enemy will undoubtedly face a heavy cost.”
In the third part of the message, Ayatollah Khamenei hailed the “extraordinary unity and solidarity displayed by the Iranian nation amid the Israeli-American aggression.
“By God’s grace, a nation of nearly 90 million stood as one—united in voice and purpose—shoulder to shoulder, without any divisions in demands or intentions,” he said.
Iran asserts right to peaceful nuclear energy under NPT;
doubts US sincerity in diplomacy
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei has reiterated the Islamic Republic’s right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes as per Article IV of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), saying the country is determined to preserve it “under any circumstances.”
Baghaei made the remarks in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV Channel on Wednesday in response to a question about US President Donald Trump’s claim that the American strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program.
“What I have to say is that Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy remains intact. Iran has every right under the NPT, under Article IV of the NPT, to enjoy nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and Iran is determined to preserve that right under any circumstances,” he said.
Speaking to reporters at a NATO conference on Wednesday, Trump claimed that the United States and Iran would hold talks “next week.”
“I don’t care if I have an agreement or not,” the US president said. “The only thing we’d be asking for is what we were asking for before, about we want no nuclear.”
Contrary to Trump’s claims, a leaked preliminary assessment by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) found that the early Sunday morning attacks caused only minimal damage to the facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan in Iran.
The report also noted that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile remains intact despite Trump claiming that the country’s nuclear program was finished.
Iran has dismissed claims of "obliteration" of its nuclear sites and vowed to robustly continue expanding its peaceful nuclear energy program.
The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Behrouz Kamalvandi, on Tuesday reiterated that the country’s nuclear program will continue to expand despite acts of aggression against the peaceful nuclear facilities.
Asked about Trump’s claims of engaging with Iran, Baghaei criticized the US for pursuing “contradictory” approaches to Tehran as Washington gave the green light to the Israeli regime to carry out acts of aggression against the Islamic Republic amid indirect Iran-US talks.
“We have been hearing all sorts of contradictory remarks for the past two or three months. There have been many contradictions with the American establishment. While they have been talking about diplomacy, they green-lighted Israelis to attack Iran,” the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said.
He added that the Israeli regime started its acts of aggression against Iran only two days before a scheduled meeting between Iran and the United States in the Omani capital of Muscat.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/06/26/750156/iran-asserts-right-peaceful-nuclear-energy-npt-doubts-us-sincerity-diplomacy
Israeli regime forces massacre over 90 Palestinians in Gaza after 7 troops killed
Israeli troops have massacred more than 90 Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip after seven regime soldiers were killed in the besieged territory in an ambush.
At least 31 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza so far this morning, local reports cited sources in hospitals in the territory as saying on Thursday.
Nine of the victims were killed in the bombing of a school housing displaced people in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, while three more were killed as they waited near aid distribution points.
Two people were killed in a bombing of the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City, with another person killed in an attack on Jabalia, farther north.
In total, during the past 24 hours, Israeli forces have killed more than 90 Palestinians in Gaza, hospital sources said.
The massacre came after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas announced that its fighters had killed seven Israeli soldiers in an ambush in southern Gaza on Wednesday.
“Funerals and the corpses of enemy soldiers will become a regular occurrence, God willing, as long as the occupation continues its criminal war against our people,” said Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas' armed wing, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
Israeli minister calls for total halt of Gaza aid
On Thursday, Israel’s far-right minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, denounced humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza as “an absolute disgrace,” calling for “not a temporary halt to ‘humanitarian’ aid, but a complete stop.”
“When I warned repeatedly, and was unfortunately the only one who voted a month and a half ago against bringing aid, I was certain it would grant Hamas a lifeline,” he said in a post on X.
Ben Gvir claimed that stopping aid would accelerate what he called Israel’s “victory,” pledging to push for another cabinet vote on the matter in the next session.
Hamas has reiterated its core conditions for a deal with Tel Aviv— a permanent ceasefire, full withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, the unrestricted flow of humanitarian aid, the start of reconstruction, and a serious prisoner exchange agreement.
BRICS+ remains credible counterweight to Western hegemony
Hamzah Rifaat
It is irrefutable that on Palestine, sanctions fatigue in the developing world, and the weaponization of the dollar, BRICS+ has become a credible counterweight to Western economic hegemony.
The acronym BRICS stands for the countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, each of which is a founding member of an intergovernmental organization that prioritizes middle-income, emerging economies and economic cooperation. Founded in 2009, BRICS has now expanded to BRICS+ to include countries such as Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia, adding high-income, emerging, and established economies in a framework geared at catering to the world’s largest markets in the absence of provocations and unilateralism
.
The organization will be convening its newest summit in July 2025 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, with an agenda centering on enhancing political and socioeconomic cooperation, artificial intelligence governance, and promotion of multidimensional peace and security architectures, which are slated to benefit all at the expense of none.
Furthermore, evidence suggests that BRICS+ has established itself as a successful counterweight to American and Western hegemonic designs, which continue to damage multipolarity. This includes resilience in the face of brazen imposition of sanctions on countries such as Iran and Russia, the weaponization of the dollar to cripple regional economic giants such as China, and adoption of escalatory policies on regional conflicts such as "Israel’s" genocide in Gaza, Ukraine, and the latest conflagration between the Zionist entity and Iran. BRICS+ is also seeking realignment on Palestine, with member states calling for an end to Israeli barbarity while condemning attacks against member states such as Iran.
Global economic powerhouse
As western economies stagnate and face domestic pressures from immigration, inflation, to energy price shocks, countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa are witnessing remarkable progress alongside generally better standards of living and the innate ability to become important financial players in the international system. This includes contributing to the overall health of the world economy. As of 2024, BRICS+ states encompassed 40% of international trade and 36% of global GDP in terms of purchasing power parity, which is higher than both the European Union and the G7 combined. Total oil production also stands at approximately 30% of total global output, with member states such as Iran having one of the largest proven oil reserves in the world.
Also, the monopoly of the West on agriculture is crippling and being replaced with self-sufficiency in the developing world including member states of BRICS+. BRICS+ produces 42% of the world’s wheat, 52% of the world’s rice, and 46% of soybeans, which, alongside trade and oil production, makes it self-sufficient in terms of crop yields and food security. To complement this potential, close to 60 bloc institutions have been established among member states, including the Contingent Reserve Arrangement. The CRA is a framework for providing liquidity and contingent instruments to member states dealing with balance of payment pressures and domestic financial instability, and there is also the New Development Bank, which supports public and private projects in member states with loans and investments. These constitute viable alternatives to Western-led financial institutions, which have only served to contribute to rising sovereign debt, limited domestic and localized development, and minimal impacts on poverty alleviation.
Eschewing dollarization while ensuring financial sovereignty, security
Another aspect of BRICS+ that challenges Western monetary architectures is the pursuit of financial independence by the bloc. Recall that President Lula Da Silva of Brazil, who replaced authoritarian, pro-"Israel" Jair Bolsonaro, who was also close to US President Donald Trump, questioned the bloc's dollarized transactions and emphasized opting for viable alternatives such as trading in local currencies, such as the Yuan and the Iranian Rial instead. What is encouraging is that Da Silva’s vision has materialized for the bloc in the form of bonds issued by the BRICS Bank in the South African Rand (an important currency in Africa). China, too, is successfully managing to increase its use of the Yuan in trading transactions, with close to 16% of its export revenue coming from the Renminbi.
Apolitical expansion and rising clout
Unlike Western economic hegemonic designs, which contributed to sovereign debt and declining credit ratings for the developing world, BRICS+ has expanded to include more dynamic members for peace and stability. This is exemplified in the blocﾒs transcontinental appeal, where in the year 2023, new members Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates agreed to partake in it, thus expanding its influence. This also reflects acceptance of diverse countries, governance systems, and ideologies, which is in line with China and Russia’s willingness to counter unipolarity promoted by the US while working toward a more equitable international system.
Post-Palestine realignments
Given that Washington D.C.’s unconditional support to a genocidal regime has continued unabated and left Palestinians increasingly disillusioned, the leadership in Gaza and the West Bank looks toward and expresses support for BRICS+ given the bloc’s proclivity toward a "two-state solution". The advocacy for Palestinian sovereignty in BRICS+ marks a sharp departure from the Trump administration’s repeated threats against Iran and unacceptable ceasefire proposals in the occupied Palestinian territories, while urging "Israel" to maintain the status quo. For Palestine, engaging with different countries in the bloc can help it diplomatically and economically, given that China and Russia have supported its internal reconciliation efforts, and leaders of the member states reiterated their support for an independent Palestinian state at the 2024 BRICS Summit in Kazan.
Also, a closer association with BRICS+ allows Palestine to benefit from conventional wisdom against Israeli barbarity from states such as South Africa, which lodged a case at the International Court of Justice against the Netanyahu regime.
It is hence irrefutable that on Palestine, sanctions fatigue in the developing world, and the weaponization of the dollar, BRICS+ as a bloc, an organization, and an entity has become a credible counterweight to Western economic hegemony.
A lot is expected at the July 2025 summit in Rio.
Mapping Israel’s expanding battlefronts across the Middle East
By Mohamed A. Hussein
A fragile ceasefire remains in place between Israel and Iran, one day after US President Donald Trump announced a truce, ending 12 days of fighting that erupted following Israeli strikes on Tehran’s nuclear and military sites.
An analysis of data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) shows that between October 7, 2023, and just before Israel attacked Iran on June 13, 2025, Israel carried out nearly 35,000 recorded attacks across five countries: the occupied Palestinian territory, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran.
These attacks include air and drone strikes, shelling and missile attacks, remote explosives, and property destruction.
The majority of attacks have been on Palestinian territory with at least 18,235 recorded incidents, followed by Lebanon (15,520), Syria (616), Iran (58) and Yemen (39).
Israel’s long-range air war
While the bulk of Israel’s attacks have concentrated on nearby Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and Lebanon, its military operations have also reached far beyond its immediate borders.
Israeli fighter jets have extended their reach by hundreds and even thousands of kilometres, striking targets about 550km (roughly 340 miles) away deep inside Syria, as well as approximately 1,500km (900 miles) away in Iran, and Yemen, up to 2,000km (1,200 miles) away. These long-distance strikes have significantly widened the geographic scope of the conflict, marking a shift towards more regionally expansive military engagement.
These operations have been made possible by Israel’s fleet of advanced US-supplied aircraft, including F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, as well as the stealth-capable F-35 – the most sophisticated combat aircraft in Israel’s arsenal. The country has also relied heavily on drones for surveillance and targeted strikes.
Attacks on Gaza
After more than 628 days of relentless bombardment, blockade, and ground operations, Israel’s devastating assault in Gaza, widely described by many experts, human rights organisations, and international observers as genocide, is continuing.
According to the latest casualty figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, at least 56,077 people have been confirmed killed and 131,848 injured.
Thousands more are feared dead, buried under the rubble.
Attacks on the occupied West Bank
Israel is applying many of the tactics used in its war on Gaza to seize and control territory across the occupied West Bank.
On January 21, just one day after a ceasefire took effect in Gaza, Israeli forces launched a large-scale military campaign across several cities in the northern occupied West Bank. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) described it as “by far the longest and most destructive operation in the occupied West Bank since the second intifada in the 2000s.”
According to an analysis by the British research group Forensic Architecture, Israel has used building demolitions, armoured bulldozers, and air strikes to establish a permanent military presence in areas such as Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps. Satellite imagery shows widespread destruction, with entire neighbourhoods flattened and roads reconfigured to facilitate troop movements and surveillance.
The United Nations estimates that these operations have displaced at least 40,000 Palestinians. Over the past 20 months, Israeli forces and settlers have killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, including more than 200 children.
Israel-Lebanon cross-border attacks
On November 27, 2024, a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect, bringing an end to nearly 14 months of cross-border fighting that killed thousands of people.
As in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, Israeli attacks left widespread destruction in their wake, damaging numerous villages in southern Lebanon and entire neighbourhoods in Beirut.
Between October 7, 2023, and October 18, 2024, Israel, Hezbollah, and other Lebanese groups exchanged more than 13,600 cross-border attacks. Of these, approximately 83 percent (11,238 incidents) were carried out by Israel.
Attacks on Syria
Since December 10, 2024, just two days after the stunning collapse of more than 53 years of the al-Assad family, Israel has waged a campaign of aerial bombardment that has destroyed much of Syria’s military infrastructure, including major airports, air defence facilities, fighter jets and other strategic infrastructure.
Over the past six months, Israeli forces have launchedﾠmore than 200 air, drone or artillery attacks across Syria, averaging an assault roughly every three to four days, according to ACLED.
The map below shows the ACLED-recorded Israeli attacks between December 8 and May 30.
Attacks on Yemen
Israel has also targeted Houthi-controlled infrastructure in Yemen, including Sanaa International Airport, Hodeidah Port, and several power stations. These strikes, which intensified in late 2024 and continued into 2025, are intended to weaken Houthi military capabilities following their missile and drone attacks on Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Attacks on Iran
On June 13, 2025, Israel initiated a major escalation by launching a large-scale series of air and drone strikes deep into Iranian territory. This marked a significant shift in the conflict, as Israel targeted multiple sites across Iran, including military installations, weapons depots, and infrastructure linked to Iran’s regional influence and missile capabilities.
Using open source intelligence, including publicly circulated images and videos on social media, media reports, as well as visual identification of destroyed locations, Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit, Sanad, has mapped some key Israeli and US strikes on Iran, as well as major Iranian attacks on Israel.
