Iranian “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned his loyalists in a speech on Sunday not to “downplay” a massive Israeli attack targeting missile factories and other critical military sites, his first remarks since the attack on Saturday.
Khamenei nonetheless also warned against helping Israel “magnify” its success in targeting the Israeli military and claimed that Israel generally was “making a miscalculation” that it could successfully defeat Iran’s military.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched an attack in the early morning hours of Saturday local time against Iranian military targets that it branded operation “Days of Repentance,” intended as a response to two failed Iranian missile barrages against Israel. Iran first attempted to bomb Israel in April, launching hundreds of missiles, drones, and other projectiles at the country. The IDF reported shortly thereafter that it had intercepted 99 percent of those projectiles. A second missile attack in October was moderately more successful but also largely intercepted.
“Based on intelligence, IAF [Israeli Air Force] aircraft struck missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the State of Israel over the last year,” the IDF explained in a statement on Saturday. “These missiles posed a direct and immediate threat to the citizens of the State of Israel. Simultaneously, the IDF struck surface-to-air missile arrays and additional Iranian aerial capabilities, that were intended to restrict Israel’s aerial freedom of operation in Iran.”
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“The State of Israel reserves the right to defend its citizens if the Iranian regime continues attacks against the State of Israel and its civilians,” the IDF warned.
All Israeli aircraft safely returned home, the country confirmed, and appeared to face little to no resistance from Iranian air defense. Iranian media reported on Monday that four Air Defense Force personnel – identified as Hamzeh Jahandideh, Mohammad Mahdi Shahrokhi, Sajjad Mansouri and Mehdi Naghavi – died in the attack. Israel did not report any casualties in the two Iranian attacks on its homeland.
In his remarks on Sunday, Khamenei claimed that the Israeli government was trying to “magnify” the success of the military operation and discouraged aiding that alleged effort – but, in contrast to other Iranian government arms, also added a warning against “dismissing” the severity of the attack.
“He noted that, while the usurping regime seeks to magnify these actions for its own specific agenda, it would be equally misguided to downplay the incident and dismiss it as insignificant or unimportant,” Iran’s Tasnim News Agency paraphrased Khamenei as saying.
Iran’s armed forces initially responded to the attack on Saturday with a statement claiming that Tehran had “successfully intercepted” the Iranian attack, which later proved false.
“This aggressive action was successfully intercepted and countered by the integrated air defense systems of the country, resulting in limited damage to some locations,” the military statement read. “In this context, the public is invited to maintain solidarity and calm, and it is requested that news related to these events be followed through national media, avoiding attention to the rumors spread by enemy media.”
In his remarks on Sunday, Khamenei also claimed that Israel was “making a miscalculation” regarding the popularity of the regime with Iran’s youth. Iran has endured years of protests by students and other youth, who have openly defied the regime – on occasion through support for Israel.
“They’re making a miscalculation with respect to Iran. They don’t know Iran,” Khamenei nonetheless claimed. “They don’t know the Iranian youth. … They still haven’t been able to correctly understand the power, capability, ingenuity, and determination of the Iranian people. We need to make them understand these things.”
Khamenei also condemned Mideast states that have found a path to coexistence with Israel, claiming that “the provision of assistance to this usurping authority constitutes one of the gravest and most abhorrent sins.” Through the Abraham Accords, brokered during the term of American former President Donald Trump, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain normalized ties with Israel, in addition to several Muslim states such as Sudan, Morocco, and Kosovo.
“Standing against the usurping regime necessitates the creation of a global political, economic, and, if necessary, military coalition to confront this evil regime, which perpetrates the most horrific war crimes,” Khamenei asserted.
In addition to Khamenei, Iran’s senior officials and spokesmen emphasized that Tehran would plot revenge against Israel for the successful targeting of its missile facilities.
“We do not seek war, but we will defend our country and the rights of our people. We will give a proportionate response to the aggression by the Zionist regime,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is subordinate to Khamenei, said on Monday.
“If the Zionist regime continues its aggression and crimes, tensions will escalate,” he predicted.
Major General Hossein Salami, the head of the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), used language similar to Khamenei’s on Monday, calling the Israeli operation a “miscalculation” and an “evil and aggressive” measure.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei, addressing reporters on Monday, also vowed revenge.
“Iran will not renounce its right to respond to the Zionist regime [Israel],” the spokesman claimed. “Regardless of the exchange of talks, we are resolute and serious in (giving) our response (to Israel).”
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