TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Saturday to retaliate against attacks by Israel and its ally the United States targeting Iran and its allied groups in the region.
Speaking to students in Tehran, Khamenei said that Tehran and its allies would not tolerate aggression, pledging to retaliate against both nations for their actions.
“The enemies, both the USA and the Zionist regime, should know that they will definitely receive a tooth-breaking response to what they are doing against Iran, the Iranian nation, and the resistance front,” Khamenei said.
His reference to the “resistance front” alludes to a network of Iran-backed groups across the Middle East, including Yemen’s Houthis, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
Khamenei’s remarks come amid heightened tensions since October last year, when the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted in Gaza, drawing in groups from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria.
For almost a year, Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in near-daily cross-border fire since October 2023. Israel intensified its military operations in Lebanon on September 23.
On October 26, Israel conducted air strikes on Iranian military sites in retaliation for Tehran’s October 1 missile attack on Israel, which Tehran claimed was a response to targeted killings of Iranian Revolutionary Guards commanders and Hezbollah and Hamas leaders.
The October 26 airstrikes reportedly killed at least four Iranian soldiers and caused what Tehran described as “limited damage” to radar systems, with Iranian media reporting one civilian casualty.
During his speech, Khamenei paid tribute to the slain soldiers, expressing that their sacrifices would not be forgotten in the ongoing conflict with Israel.
Meanwhile, Ali Mohammad Naini, spokesperson for Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, warned that Israel would face a “crushing response” to any further provocations.
“The enemy should learn that it cannot commit any evil it wants; it will undoubtedly receive a crushing response to its evildoing,” Naini told Fars news agency on Saturday.
The situation has prompted the United States to increase its military presence in the Middle East, with the Pentagon announcing Friday that it is sending ballistic missile defence destroyers and B-52 bombers to the region.
The US has framed these actions as precautionary, but they serve as a clear message to Iran amid the escalating tit-for-tat strikes between Tehran and Israel.
Khamenei reaffirmed Iran’s readiness to confront its adversaries, indicating that the country was actively preparing its military and political resources for any confrontation. “We are certainly doing everything that should be done to prepare the Iranian nation, whether in terms of military, in terms of weapons, or in terms of political work,” he said.
