The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued renewed threats to Iranian arch-enemies Israel and the United States on Saturday, following the recent military confrontations.
“The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or America, will certainly receive a devastating response to what they are doing to Iran and the resistance front,” the 85-year-old Khamenei said at an event in Tehran.
Whether there would be a military response to the Israeli retaliatory attack a week ago initially remained open.
The danger of a major, open war between Iran and Israel recently increased.
A week ago, Israel hit Iran with airstrikes in what the country described as retaliation for an Iranian missile attack at the beginning of October.
Afterwards, there were contradictory statements and reports as to whether Iran’s military would respond.
Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance, an informal alliance of Islamist militant groups backed by Tehran, includes the Lebanese Hezbollah movement and the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip.