March 12, 2026 | 09:24 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, issued his first public statement on Thursday, March 12, 2026, since being named head of the Islamic Republic after his father, Ali Khamenei, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on February 28.
Iran's supreme leader said attacks on Iran's Gulf neighbors would continue and called for keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed, and choking off global oil supply, as leverage.
Khamenei did not appear on camera, and his statement was read on state television by a news anchor.
Israeli intelligence has assessed Khamenei was wounded in the attack that killed his father and other family members, which was widely reported on Wednesday amid speculation about why he had not yet appeared in public or issued a statement.
Khamenei also vowed "vengeance" for those killed in the 13-day war launched by the US and Israel, including a strike on a girls' school that killed at least 165 people.
Israel Says Iranian Nuclear Site Hit by Strikes
Meanwhile, earlier, the Israeli military (IDF) said its air force hit a site near Tehran "used to advance critical capabilities in developing nuclear weapons."
In post on X earlier Thursday, David Albright, president of the nuclear weapons watchdog Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), said satellite images of the "Taleghan 2 facility" dated March 11 showed three massive holes in the soil covering its roof.
"Taleghan 2 has been attacked, likely destroyed internally," Albright wrote.
The site, located at the Parchin military complex some 30 kilometers south of Tehran, had already been destroyed in an Israeli air strike in October 2024, according to the US-based ISIS, which monitors Iran's nuclear program.
In satellite imagery analysis from February 2026, ISIS said Iran had been burying the Taleghan 2 facility with soil, and that the facility had been under construction since May 2025.
The IDF said the compound was "used to develop advanced explosives and conduct sensitive experiments as part of the covert 'AMAD' project in the 2000s."
AMAD refers to an alleged secret Iranian nuclear development program at the time, which Tehran had denied existed.
Read: US Vetoes Russia's UNSC Resolution Calling for Iran Ceasefire
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