ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Ali Shamkhani, a senior advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was severely injured in Israel’s first wave of strikes. On Saturday he made his first public appearance at a funeral for dozens of people killed in the war with Israel, and he described the moment the room he was in was hit.
Shamkhani said he was asleep in his room when it collapsed under an Israeli strike, leaving him trapped beneath the rubble for three hours. “My whole room collapsed, a lot of debris fell on me,” he told state TV. “At first, I thought it was an earthquake.”
With limited oxygen, Shamkhani began digging with his foot in an attempt to free himself. “I was taking small, sharp breaths. It wasn’t even a breath,” he recalled.
Rescue workers searching for survivors heard him shouting and called out, “He’s here!”
“I wasn’t afraid for a moment. I said I was going to die… I’ve lived my life. Let’s see how long I live,” he said.
Shamkhani, a key figure in Iran’s military and political establishment, has held senior roles across both the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the regular army.
He served as defense minister from 1997 to 2005 and later as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 2013 to 2023, where he oversaw national security and nuclear diplomacy. Known for bridging reformist and conservative camps, Shamkhani has played a lasting role in shaping Iran’s regional and strategic policies.
He was wrongly reported killed in Israel’s first strikes on Iranian military leadership and nuclear sites on June 13.
“They knew why they targeted me, and I know why they targeted me,” Shamkhani said.
On June 21 he posted on social media that he had been injured.
In its operation against Iran, Israel targeted the top echelon of Iran’s military, killing many senior commanders including IRGC commander General Hossein Salami, chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Bagheri, head of IRGC’s main operational command General Gholam Ali Rashid, and head of the IRGC’s aerospace division General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
“These soldiers, my dear brothers, who were all martyred, were friends, comrades, and fellow soldiers,” said Shamkhani. He described them as “the minds and pillars of Iran’s authority” with whom he used to plot strategy.
The commanders were all quickly replaced and Iran began a retaliation campaign that had been pre-planned as a contingency.
“We predicted that we would be attacked, so what happened next was based on the decisions of the Supreme Leader during these meetings. We knew what to do if this happened and we knew what our capabilities were,” Shamkhani said.
His interview was done on the sidelines of a large, state funeral ceremony for around 60 people, including military personnel, scientists, and civilians killed in the war with Israel. The event grew massive crowds.
President Masoud Pezeshkian joined top officials at the funeral, as did Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba.
The conflict brought an end to indirect nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has ruled out the possibility of resuming the talks, though US President Donald Trump has said he expects they will meet.
Shamkhani said that the US was not negotiating with Iran with the goal of reaching a nuclear deal, but in order to “provoke the internal situation in the country and force them to protest.”
Those behind the conflict believed “that with a single action, Iran’s internal situation will be ripe for an uprising,” he said, but added that Iranians have repeatedly demonstrated their commitment to national sovereignty.
“Now it is our duty to resolve even the smallest disagreement [with the people],” he added.
Washington, which also carried out strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, on Tuesday brokered a ceasefire to the 12-day war.