Iran leader warns U.S. will pay ‘heavy price’ if it attacks again

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.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Thursday that the U.S. “will definitely pay a heavy price” should it attack Iran again.

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.