The US and Israel “will definitely receive a strong reaction”, Iran’s supreme leader said after Israel’s attack on Iran a week ago.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the comments while speaking to students on Saturday ahead of the 45th anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran.
The threat comes as Iran evaluates whether and how to respond to Israel’s attack last month. said he killed four soldiersin retaliation for Iran’s missile attack on Israel in early October.
Iran’s attack was in response to the killing of leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas – Iranian-backed armed groups fighting Israel – and a senior Iranian commander.
Khamenei said Iran’s enemies, including Israel and the United States, “will certainly receive a strong reaction to what they are doing to Iran, the Iranian people and the resistance front.”
Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance” is a coalition of groups backed by Tehran, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen and well-armed groups in Iraq and Syria. Most have been considered terrorist entities by some Western countries.
Israel is believed to have seriously damaged Iran’s air defense system and missile capabilities in the October 26 attack, although Iran has not admitted this.
Israel considers Iran a key backer of Hamas attacks that killed about 1,200 people on October 7 last year.
More than 250 people were also taken into the Gaza Strip as hostages.
Since then, Israel has launched a major campaign in Gaza, killing more than 43,300 people, according to the territory’s Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Israel also launched an offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon in September, following nearly a year of cross-border fighting and rocket fire that Hezbollah launched in support of the Palestinians the day after the Hamas attack.
Israel says it wants to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents from northern Israel displaced by the conflict.
According to Lebanese authorities, more than 2,800 people have died in Lebanon since then and another 1.2 million have been displaced.
Israeli authorities say more than 60 people have been killed by rocket, drone and rocket attacks by Hezbollah in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights.
Relations between the United States and Iran have been volatile since November 4, 1979, when Iranian protesters detained more than 50 American diplomats and embassy staff, sparking a hostage situation that lasted 444 days long.
