DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday his country had “delivered a hand slap to America’s face” and warned against any further U.S. attacks in his first public comments since a ceasefire was declared with Israel.

Khamenei spoke in a video broadcast on Iranian state television, his first appearance since June 19, looking and sounding more tired than he did only a week ago.

He told viewers that the U.S. had only intervened in the war because “it felt that if it did not intervene, the Zionist regime would be utterly destroyed.”

But he said that the U.S. “achieved no gains from this war.”

“The Islamic Republic was victorious and, in retaliation, delivered a hand slap to America’s face,” he said, in apparent reference to an Iranian missile attack on an American base in nearby Qatar on Monday, which caused no casualties.

Khamenei warned that “such an action can be repeated in the future, too,” saying that Iran has “access to key U.S. centers in the region and can take action whenever it deems necessary.”

“Should any aggression occur, the enemy will definitely pay a heavy price,” he said.

The 86-year-old Khamenei hasn’t been seen in public since taking shelter in a secret location after the outbreak of the war June 13 when Israel attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and targeted top military commanders and scientists.

Following an American attack on June 22 that hit the nuclear sites with bunker-buster bombs, U.S. President Donald Trump was able to help negotiate a ceasefire that came into effect on Tuesday.

In his appearance on Thursday, he sat in front of plain brown curtains to give his address, similar to his June 19 message.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday the U.S. knows where Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is hiding during the Israel-Iran conflict but doesn’t want him killed “for now.”

Trump urged, in a social media posting, Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” as the five-day conflict continues to escalate.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump added. “He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin.”

Trump’s increasingly muscular comments toward the Iranian government come after he urged Tehran’s 9.5 million residents to flee for their lives as he cut short his participation in an international summit to return to Washington for urgent talks with his national security team.

The comments about Khamenei and calls for surrender came shortly after Trump in a separate posting touted complete control of the skies over Tehran.

Trump in the opening days of the conflict rejected a plan presented by Israel to kill Khamenei, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to comment on the sensitive matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Israelis had informed the Trump administration that they had developed a credible plan to kill Khamenei. But White House officials informed the Israelis that Trump opposed such a move. Administration officials were concerned that the plan to kill Khamenei could enflame the conflict and potentially destabilize the region.

Trump returned to the White House from his abbreviated trip to the Group of Seven summit in the Canadian Rockies early Tuesday at a moment of choosing in his presidency.

Israel, with five days of missile strikes, has done considerable damage to Iran and believes it can now deal a permanent blow to Tehran’s nuclear program — particularly if it gets a little more help from the Republican president.

But deepening American involvement, perhaps by providing the Israelis with bunker-busting bombs to penetrate Iranian nuclear sites built deep underground or offering other direct U.S. military support, comes with enormous political risk for Trump.

Trump, as he made his way back to Washington, expressed frustration with Iranian leaders for failing to reach an agreement. He said he was now looking for “a real end” to the conflict and a “complete give-up” of Tehran’s nuclear program.

“They should have done the deal. I told them, ‘Do the deal,’” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “So I don’t know. I’m not too much in the mood to negotiate.”

Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb.

Trump, who held a Situation Room meeting with advisers on Tuesday afternoon, has been gradually building the public case for a more direct American role in the conflict. His shift in tone comes as the U.S. has repositioned warships and military aircraft in the region to respond if the conflict between Israel and Iran further escalates.

Meanwhile, the State Department created a special task force to assist Americans seeking to leave Israel and other Mideast countries, although no government evacuations are currently planned. There are some 700,000 Americans, many of them dual U.S.-Israeli citizens, now in Israel and thousands more in other Mideast countries, including Iran.

Trump left the G7 summit a full day early so he could return to Washington to focus his attention on the Mideast crisis. Trump, while at the summit, also raised alarms when he urged Iranians with a social media posting to “immediately evacuate Tehran.”

Asked about his evacuation comment, Trump told reporters: “I just want people to be safe.”

Trump said he wasn’t ruling out a diplomatic option and he could send Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with the Iranians.

He also dismissed congressional testimony from National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, who told lawmakers in March that U.S. spy agencies did not believe Iran was building a nuclear weapon.

“I don’t care what she said,” Trump said. “I think they were very close to having it.”

Gabbard on Tuesday brushed off the inconsistency, blaming the media for misconstruing her earlier testimony and asserting that “President Trump was saying the same thing that I said.”

The Israelis say their offensive has eviscerated Iran’s air defenses and they can now strike targets across the country at will. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Israeli bombardment will continue until Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missiles are destroyed.

So far, Israel has targeted multiple Iranian nuclear program sites but has not been able to destroy Iran’s Fordo uranium enrichment facility.

The site is buried deep underground — and to eliminate it, Israel may need the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which uses its weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets and then explode. But Israel does not have the munition or the bomber needed to deliver it — the penetrator is currently delivered by the B-2 stealth bomber.

Israel’s own defenses remain largely intact in the face of Iran’s retaliatory strikes, but some of Tehran’s missiles are getting through and having deadly impact.

Trump and Netanyahu spoke by phone on Tuesday about the evolving situation, according to a White House official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Trump bristled when asked about some of his MAGA faithful, including conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, who have suggested that further U.S. involvement would be a betrayal to supporters who were drawn to his promise to end U.S. involvement in expensive and endless wars.

“Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that,’ IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!’” the president wrote on social media.

Other prominent Trump supporters and Republican lawmakers have also raised concerns about how far the president should go in backing Israel.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk are among prominent Trump World allies who have noted that voters backed Trump because he promised not to entangle the nation in foreign clashes and to be wary of expanding U.S. involvement in the Mideast conflict.

And Reps. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, introduced a resolution on Tuesday that calls on Trump to “terminate” the use of U.S. armed forces against Iran unless “explicitly authorized” by a declaration of war from Congress.

In a Tuesday posting on X, Vance said he wanted to address “a lot of crazy stuff on social media” about Trump’s approach to Iran.

Vance made the case that Trump has been consistent that “Iran cannot have uranium enrichment” and has said “repeatedly that this would happen one of two ways — the easy way or the ‘other’ way.”

There are also Trump backers, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who are making the case that this is Trump’s moment to deliver a decisive blow to Iran. Graham is calling for Trump to “go all-in” in backing Israel and destroying Iran’s nuclear program.

Associated Press writers Josh Boak, Tara Copp, Kevin Freking, David Klepper, Matthew Lee, Darlene Superville and Will Weissert contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Sunday.

“Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do we’re not even talking about going after the political leadership,” said one of the sources, a senior U.S. administration official.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said top U.S. officials have been in constant communications with Israeli officials in the days since Israel launched a massive attack on Iran in a bid to halt its nuclear program.

They said the Israelis reported that they had an opportunity to kill the top Iranian leader, but Trump waved them off of the plan.

The officials would not say whether Trump himself delivered the message. But Trump has been in frequent communications with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

When asked about Reuters report, Netanyahu, in an interview on Sunday with Fox News Channel’s “Special Report With Bret Baier,” said: “There’s so many false reports of conversations that never happened, and I’m not going to get into that.”

“But I can tell you, I think that we do what we need to do, we’ll do what we need to do. And I think the United States knows what is good for the United States,” Netanyahu said.

Trump has been holding out hope for a resumption of U.S.-Iranian negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program. Talks that had been scheduled for Sunday in Oman were canceled as a result of the strikes.

Trump told Reuters on Friday that “we knew everything” about the Israeli strikes.