Iran’s supreme leader says his country has outmaneuvered the United States in the four decades since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, pushing it back into a geopolitical corner from which it has never recovered.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Iran has “trapped the other party in the corner of the ring in many cases” although he provided no evidence to back his claim.

His claim does however continue a elaborate them in Iranian politics that the U.S. is a beaten party and the Islamic republic stands alone astride Middle East politics.

He says U.S. aggression toward Iran has only grown “wilder and more flagrant” over the years.

Khamenei’s official website published his remarks to thousands of students Sunday, a day before the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran.

Tensions have been high between Washington and Tehran after President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from Iran’s flawed 2015 nuclear deal.

The U.S. has sought to roll back Iran’s influence across the region by imposing sanctions and providing military and other aid to its adversaries.

For its part, as recently as June this year Iran was warning the U.S. it had to be prepared to be crushed across the Middle East.

“Zionists” were also warned they face the same fate in the announcement.

General Rahim Safavi told the local Fars newsagency Iran has the ability to hit far beyond its borders and its enemies should take note.

As Breitbart News reported, just weeks before that threat the U.S. military presence in the Middle East was dismissed as its “weakest in history” by a deputy commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.

Admiral Ali Fadavi, a deputy Guards commander, made the accusation but failed to add any evidence to back his claim.

“The Americans have been present in the region since 1833 and they are now at their weakest in history in West Asia,” Fadavi is alleged to have said.

Tehran has previously described U.S. military moves as “psychological warfare” and a “political game”designed to hurt the innocent Iran people.

AP contibuted to this report