Iran: Khamenei orders preparation for strike against Israel
Iran’s supreme leader has directed military commanders to prepare for an attack against Israel, senior Iranian officials told The New York Times.
Three Iranian officials, speaking to The New York Times on condition of anonymity, revealed that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued the directive during a Supreme National Security Council meeting on Monday. The order came after he reviewed reports detailing damage to Iran’s missile production facilities, air defense systems, and critical infrastructure from recent Israeli strikes.
Gen Ali Fadavi, deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, declared on Thursday that retaliation was inevitable. “Iran’s response to the Zionist aggression is definite,” Fadavi told Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen television station. “We have never left an aggression unanswered in 40 years. We are capable of destroying all that the Zionists possess with one operation.”
Gholamhossein Mohammadi Golpayegani, head of the supreme leader’s office, echoed these sentiments, promising “a fierce, tooth-breaking response” to what he termed Israel’s “desperate action,” according to Tasnim, a semiofficial news agency affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards.