ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – In a video address to the people of Iran, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday congratulated his compatriots on their conduct during the conflict with Israel, saying that the US intervened to save its ally from being “destroyed.”

“The US regime entered into a direct war because it felt that if it did not enter, the Zionist regime [Israel] would be completely destroyed. Here too, the Islamic Republic won, and in return, it dealt a severe slap to America,” Khamenei said in a video message carried by Iranian state media.

The US “did not gain anything from this war,” he continued in what were his first public comments on the conflict since the ceasefire came into effect on Tuesday.

Tensions between Israel and Iran came to a boiling point on June 13 when Israel carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and top military officials, marking the beginning of a 12-day-long exchange of fire that saw the US' involvement, striking the Iranian underground Fordow nuclear facility before brokering a ceasefire between the warring sides.

Speaking regarding the Iranian attack on US military targets at the Al-Udeid airbase in Qatar, Khamenei said, “It is a major incident… that can be repeated in the future.” He asserted that Iran "has access to key US centers in the region and can take action whenever it deems necessary."

He continued by saying that US and Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities "were unable to do anything important," adding that US President Donald Trump "exaggerated" the damages inflicted

The Iranian leader said that Tehran’s armed forces “were able to break through [Israel’s] advanced, multi-layered defenses and raze many of their urban and military areas to the ground,” noting that his country withstood the “pressure… of their own advanced weapons” all the while.

The supreme leader concluded by thanking the Iranian populace for its support during the hostilities, saying, “Thank God, a nation of about ninety million people united, one voice, shoulder to shoulder, stood together, without any difference in their demands, in the intentions they express, they stood, chanted slogans, spoke [and] supported the behavior of the armed forces.”