![\"Mojtaba](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1773119576-7191.jpg\" "\\"Mojtaba")
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The supreme leader has not been seen in public since he was wounded in a strike at the start of the war (Photo: PTI)<\/p>\n
2 min read Last Updated : Jun 19 2026 | 6:59 AM IST<\/p>\n
\n\tIranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei endorsed direct negotiations with the US late Thursday in a statement read by state media.<\/p>\n
\n\t“It is obvious that the face-to-face negotiations that will be held in the future will not mean accepting the enemy’s opinion,” he said.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt was Khamenei’s first reaction to the deal recently reached between Iran and the US to end hostilities.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe supreme leader has not been seen in public since he was wounded in a strike at the start of the war.<\/p>\n
\n\tMeanwhile, the US military has formally lifted the blockade of Iranian shipping, US Central Command announced in a social media post Thursday.<\/p>\n
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\n\tThe announcement comes just hours after Vice President JD Vance told reporters that 12.5 million barrels of oil went through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday and that the military has allowed “north of a dozen ships to go through our naval blockade.”\u00a0
\n\tHowever, the post from US Central Command said that US Navy ships “will remain in the general area to make sure that all aspects of the agreement are adhered to, obeyed and in full force and effect.”\u00a0
\n\tThe US Navy currently has more than a dozen ships, including two aircraft carriers, in the the waters off Iran.<\/p>\n
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)<\/p>\n
First Published: Jun 19 2026 | 6:59 AM IST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The supreme leader has not been seen in public since he was wounded in a strike at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[1144,15481,25197,52086,2107,29715,19928,4345,7789,2104,23580,2289,24902,24250,39,52085,6518,69,15539,291,41684],"class_list":["post-167276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-persian-gulf","tag-ayatollah-khamenei","tag-diplomatic-talks","tag-direct-negotiations","tag-hostilities-agreement","tag-iran-nuclear-programme","tag-iran-peace-deal","tag-iran-statement","tag-iran-supreme-leader","tag-iran-us-negotiations","tag-iranian-leadership","tag-middle-east-diplomacy","tag-mojtaba-khamenei","tag-nuclear-negotiations","tag-peace-negotiations","tag-persian-gulf","tag-post-war-talks","tag-regional-security","tag-tehran","tag-us-iran-talks","tag-us-iran-relations","tag-washington-tehran-relations"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116774335123113612","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}