Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that the United States and Israel will “undoubtedly receive a crushing response” for what they do against his country, state media reported.
“Enemies, including America and the Zionist regime, should know that they will undoubtedly receive a crushing response for what they do against Iran and the resistance front,” Khamenei said at a student gathering in Tehran.
The “resistance front” was a reference to the alliance of Tehran-backed militant groups that include the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestinian territories.
He made the comments ahead of the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran by hardline students shortly after the Islamic revolution that ousted the US-backed Shah.
Without offering more detail, Khamenei said hostile actions against the Islamic Republic “wouldn’t be forgotten”.
It was a possible reference to Israel’s Oct 26 attack on military targets across Iran that killed five people, including a civilian. Israeli defence forces struck with more than 100 fighter jets, although there was no confirmation of major damage to oil or nuclear facilities.
The US news website Axios, citing two Israeli sources it did not identify, reported on Thursday that Iran was planning a strike through militias that it backs in Iraq, with the assault expected to be carried out using drones and ballistic missiles.
Saturday’s remarks by Khamenei marked a shift from his more measured tone shortly after Israel’s Oct 26 strike, which he characterised as a “miscalculation”.
At the time he cautioned against exaggerating or underestimating the significance of the attack, without any explicit threat of retaliation.
The United States on Friday announced the deployment of additional military assets to the Middle East, including ballistic missile defence destroyers and long-range B-52 bomber aircraft, serving as a warning to Iran as it and Israel trade tit-for-tat strikes.
Khamenei said Iran was “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”, without elaborating.
Also on Saturday, Revolutionary Guards spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini said Iran would respond “decisively” to Israel.
“The enemy should learn that it cannot commit any evil (it wants); it will undoubtedly receive a crushing response to its evildoing,” the Fars news agency quoted him as saying.
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