Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has promised a \u201cteeth-breaking\u201d response to Israel and the United States after Israel targeted Iranian military sites in retaliatory strikes late last month. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe enemies, both the US and the Zionist regime (Israel), should know that they will definitely receive a teeth-breaking response for what they are doing against Iran and the resistance front,\u201d said Khamenei, referring to Iran-allied militant groups including Hamas and Hezbollah. <\/p>\n
He was speaking during a meeting with students on Saturday, ahead of the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran, Iran\u2019s state-run Press TV reported. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are certainly doing everything necessary to prepare the Iranian nation to stand against arrogance, whether in terms of military readiness, armaments, or political actions, and thank God, our officials are currently engaged in this,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Iran and Israel have long been enemies, a rivalry that deepened following Hamas\u2019 attacks of October 7 last year and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza. Israel has been battling Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and overnight at least 19 people were injured in the central Israeli city of Tira after projectiles were launched over the border. <\/p>\n
Khamenei\u2019s remarks come a week after Israel\u2019s latest round of strikes on Iran in response to the Islamic Republic\u2019s October 1 missile attack on the Jewish state, which itself was a response to the Israeli killing of leaders from Hamas and Hezbollah. <\/p>\n
For the first time, Israeli officials admitted hitting targets on Iranian soil in a significant escalation of tensions, although Israel stopped short of hitting Iranian energy or nuclear facilities. <\/p>\n
Khamenei\u2019s remarks on Saturday signal a departure from Iran\u2019s initial attempts to downplay the severity of the strikes carried out by Israel on October 25. <\/p>\n
Following the strikes, Khamenei took a more measured tone, saying the attacks should \u201cneither be exaggerated nor downplayed.\u201d <\/p>\n
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday said Iran should not respond to Israel\u2019s strikes on its territory, adding that \u201cif Iran does choose to respond, however, the US will be standing by to assist Israel in its defense.\u201d <\/p>\n
Also this week, Iran said it could increase the range of its missiles, according to a report in state-run media. \u201cIf the Islamic Republic of Iran faces an existential threat, we will inevitably change the policy of our military doctrine,\u201d the head of Iran\u2019s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, Kamal Kharrazi, told Lebanon\u2019s al-Mayadeen TV on Friday, per Press TV. <\/p>\n
He also said Iran is capable of producing nuclear weapons but remains curbed by a mandate by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei against weapons of mass destruction, Press TV reported. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has promised a \u201cteeth-breaking\u201d response to Israel and the United States after Israel targeted Iranian military sites in retaliatory strikes late last month. \u201cThe enemies, both the US and the Zionist regime (Israel), should know that they will definitely receive a teeth-breaking response for what they are doing against <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}