Iran admits extraordinary new detail in Khamenei strike, Trump offered 'way out': expert

close Video US, Israel strike Iran: Ayatollah Khamenei, 40 top Iranian leaders killed The U. S. and Israel launch Operation Epic Fury strikes, killing Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and 40 top officials. Fox News' Jennifer Griffin reports the latest on the fallout. NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! New details from Iran’s top diplomat about the strike that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei provide some of the clearest evidence yet of the precision and strategy behind the joint U. S.-Israeli operation that launched Operation Epic Fury, counterterrorism experts said Sunday. The account, revealed a new television interview, also highlights what analysts describe as a defining feature of President Donald Trump’s national security doctrine: using a decapitation strike against a hostile regime while simultaneously creating an off-ramp to end the conflict. "Well, the building we were sitting in was targeted, but the wing we were in remained intact while the other wing of the building was destroyed," Araghchi said in an interview that aired June 4 on the Lebanon-based, Hezbollah-backed Al Mayadeen television network. While Araghchi survived the Feb. 28 strike because he was in a different wing of Khamenei's compound when the attack occurred, he went on to detail how Khamenei was in his office and how others survived. BEFORE-AND-AFTER SATELLITE IMAGERY OFFERS A RARE LOOK AT DAMAGE INSIDE IRAN Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrives at the government palace to meet Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in Beirut on Jan. 9, 2026. (Joseph Eid/AFP via ) Reviewing the original segment, counterterrorism expert Dr. Omar Mohammed told Fox News Digital that Araghchi’s account confirms the operation targeted a specific section of the complex rather than flattening the entire site. "In the Arabic version, Araghchi says he was in a different wing of the compound, briefing another official, and his wing survived while the leader’s office was destroyed," Mohammed explained. Araghchi also told the interviewer that he had an appointment that day with an official at the compound regarding the Geneva negotiations and that, based on the usual workflow, Khamenei "had to be present in his office." Mohammed, director of the Antisemitism Research Initiative at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, added that if Araghchi’s account is accurate, this was Iran's glaring acknowledgment of U. S. strategic capabilities. "They did not flatten a building; they took one wing and left the one next to it standing.