Iran’s supreme leader has threatened both Israel and the US with “a crushing response” over attacks on the country and its allies.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke as Iranian officials increasingly threatened to launch yet another strike against Israel after its October 26 on the Islamic Republic that targeted military bases and other locations, killing at least five people.
Any further attacks from either side could engulf the wider Middle East – already teetering over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon – into a wider regional conflict just head of the US presidential election this Tuesday.
Mr Khamenei said in a video released by Iranian state media: “The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation, and to the resistance front.”
The supreme leader did not elaborate on the timing of the attack, nor the scope.
The 85-year-old had struck a more cautious approach in earlier remarks, saying officials would weigh Iran’s response and that Israel’s attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed”.