Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned Israel and the United States of “a crushing response” for actions against Iran and its allies, according to state media.
Khamenei, 85, made the remarks on Saturday while addressing students ahead of the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran by hardline students – which cemented the decades-long enmity between Tehran and Washington that persists today.
“The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation and to the resistance front,” Khamenei said in the capital, Tehran, also referring to Iran-aligned armed groups that include Yemen’s Houthis, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas.
The supreme leader did not elaborate on the timing of any attack, or the scope.
He had previously struck a more cautious approach, saying officials would weigh Iran’s response and that Israel’s attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed”, after the Israeli military launched strikes last week on military bases in Iran, hitting about 20 sites over several hours in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran.
Israel said the strikes were a response to attacks from “Iran and its proxies”.
Khamenei on Saturday met with university students to mark Students’ Day, which commemorates a November 4, 1978, incident in which Iranian soldiers opened fire on students protesting the rule of the shah at Tehran University.
The crowd greeted Khamenei with enthusiastic cheers, chanting, “The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader!”
Risk of further escalation
Israel has said its air strikes on Iran on October 26 were in retaliation for a major ballistic missile attack by Tehran on October 1.
The Iranian attack, which involved about 200 missiles, was launched after Israeli assaults in recent months that killed leaders of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iranian military.
Israel has warned Iran against retaliating, while Tehran, stating it does not seek war, has promised to respond.
“If Iran makes the mistake of launching another missile barrage at Israel, we will once again know how to reach Iran … and strike very, very hard,” said Israel’s military chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi earlier this week, adding that certain targets had been set aside “because we may be required to do this again”.
Any further attacks from either side risk drawing the region – already on edge due to Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon – into a wider regional conflict, just days ahead of the US presidential election on Tuesday.
The US military operates throughout the Middle East, with some troops now manning a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery in Israel.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “ordered the deployment of additional ballistic missile defense destroyers, fighter squadron and tanker aircraft, and several US Air Force B-52 long-range strike bombers to the region,” Pentagon spokesman Major-General Pat Ryder said on Friday.
Austin “continues to make clear that should Iran, its partners, or its proxies use this moment to target American personnel or interests in the region, the United States will take every measure necessary to defend our people”, Ryder said in a statement.