‘Iran not a nation that surrenders,’ says Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shortly before Trump announces ceasefire

Iran-Israel Ceasefire: Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Monday night that Iran is not a nation that surrenders.

Khamenei's statement came after Iran launched missile strikes on a US military base in Qatar in retaliation to America's strike on three of its nuclear sites leading to an escalation in the region.

The Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader took to X shortly before US President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that a ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel had been reached and is expected to take effect within “six hours.”

“Those who know the Iranian people and their history know that the Iranian nation isn’t a nation that surrenders,” Khamenei wrote on his official X handle.

The New York Times reported last week that since Israel launched its strikes on June 13, Khamenei, 86, has been sheltering in a bunker. He speaks with his commanders through a trusted aide and has suspended electronic communications, the report said.

Wary of assassination,Khamenei has also picked replacements in his chain of military commands in case they are killed in Israeli strikes.

'Complete and total ceasefire'

Trump announced that Israel and Iran have agreed to a ‘complete and total ceasefire’ to be phased in over 24 hours. Trump's announcement on Truth Social came several hours after Iran launched a missile attackon a US air base in Qatar, retaliating for the American bombing of its three nuclear sites a day before.

Iran said that its armed forces used the same number of bombs that the US had used in attacking its nuclear facilities. President Trump had dismissed the attack as a ‘very weak response,’ revealing that Tehran had warned Washington in advance and that no injuries were reported.

The US said on Sunday that the country's military "obliterated" Iran's main nuclear sites using 14 bunker-buster bombs, more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles and over 125 military aircraft.

The strikes marked an escalation in the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict, with Israel beginning to strike Iran on June 13. Israeli strikes on Iran have so far killed at least 950 people, wounded 3,450 others, news agency AP quoted a human rights group as saying on Sunday.

(With agency inputs)