President Donald Trump announced Friday that he is abandoning plans to lift sanctions on Iran, citing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s claim that Iran “won the war” with Israel.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Trump rejected the Ayatollah’s remarks as a “lie,” calling Iran a “war-torn” and “burned out” nation whose nuclear facilities were “obliterated.” Trump claimed he personally halted a final Israeli airstrike on Tehran that could have caused mass casualties.
“I saved him from a very ugly and ignomious death,” Trump wrote, adding that Iran responded with “anger, hatred, and disgust.” He said this prompted him to “immediately drop all work on sanction relief.” Trump concluded by urging Iran to change course, saying, “You often get more with honey than you do with vinegar.”
My congratulations on our dear Iran’s victory over the US regime. The US regime entered the war directly because it felt that if it didn’t, the Zionist regime would be completely destroyed. It entered the war in an effort to save that regime but achieved nothing.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) June 26, 2025
The Biden-era sanctions had remained in place during Trump’s presidency, but recent backchannel discussions had raised hopes of easing them.
