IRAN has vowed to deliver a chilling “crushing response” to Israel after the “Day of Repentance” strikes – while also threatening the US.
Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s speech marks another chilling warning that Tehran looks to get revenge for Israel’s October 26 strikes.
Khamenei, delivering his speech in Tehran, was met with chants from students praising “the blood in our veins is a gift to our leader”.
He met with the university students to commemorate the 1978 incident where Iranian soldiers opened fire on students protesting the rule of shah at Tehran University.
The leaders speech represents yet another warning from Iranian officials that Tehran looks to get revenge for Israel’s October 26 strike on military bases among other locations.
The blitz marked the first time Iran had been hit by a foreign air force since its war with Iraq in the 1980s.
The Ayatollah – or supreme leader – didn’t elaborate on the timing of the threatened attack or the scope of it, instead just promising that the US and Israel would “definitely” receive a devastating response.
Currently the US military operates throughout the Middle East, with some troops manning a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, otherwise known as THAAD, battery in Israel.
The US had been in reported discussions with Israel in the run up to last week’s strike but played no military role.
In a bid to avoid escalation, Israel assured the US that it wouldn’t strike sensitive targets.
In the speech to students, Khamenei said: “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.”
The 85-year-old supreme leader was referring to the alliance of Tehran-backed armed groups including Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi rebels.
Iran long has used those groups as both an asymmetrical way to attack Israel and as a shield against a direct assault.
Khamenei has previously taken a more cautious approach in earlier remarks saying officials would weigh Irans response and that Israel’s attack should not be exaggerated nor downplayed.
A further attack by Iran could push the wider Middle East closer to a broader conflict.
The country has already launched two direct attacks against Israel this year in April and October.
Israel is already in battles and bloodshed with Iran-backed militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The fight against Hezbollah has weakened the group but has also taken a heavy toll on southern Lebanon among other parts of the country.
On Friday, Israel launched dozens of intense airstrikes across Lebanon’s northeastern farming villages, killing at least 52 people and wounding more, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported.
Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon – both Iran-backed militant groups.
The IDF have been striking parts of northern Gaza, claiming they are aiming to wipe out Hamas brutes.
But the strikes have also killed scores of Palestinians who have been unable to flee the densely populated area.
More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war so far, according to Gaza-run health centres.
The figure also includes Hamas terrorists, but Israel has not specified the exact ratio of civilian to militant.
Hamas killed around 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals in the October 7 attack last year, and kidnapped around 250 more into Gaza.
It comes after a senior expert on the regime claimed Donald Trump would “unleash the wrath of God” on Iran if reelected, but Tehran doesn’t fear Kamala Harris.
Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, told The U.S. Sun that a Trump victory in the election on November 5 would pose a “very significant challenge” to the Islamic Republic.
Next week’s election comes at a critical time in US-Iranian relations, with tensions between Washington and Tehran as high as they’ve ever been.
On November 4, Iran will mark the 45th anniversary of the 1979 US Embassy hostage crisis, when armed Iranian college students who supported that year’s Islamist revolution stormed the American embassy in Tehran, taking 53 US diplomats hostage for 444 days.
That anniversary – seen as a pivotal moment in US-Iranian relations – comes as the ongoing conflict in Israel has ratcheted up tensions between the two countries.
As the world’s eyes turn to the US election, Brodsky said that Tehran would likely prefer a Harris victory.
“If you have Vice President Harris in office, I think you will see a resumption of diplomacy with the Islamic Republic,” he said.
A Harris victory would be “more continuity than change,” he added.
On the other hand, a Trump victory would not be celebrated in Tehran, Brodsky said.
“The Islamic Republic fears Donald Trump,” he said. That’s why it has been trying to kill him.”
