Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a speech at the graduation ceremony for armed forces officers at the Imam Ali Academy in Tehran, Iran, on October 10, 2023.
Wanna News Agency | via Reuters
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that Israel’s attack on the Iranian embassy compound in Syria “must and should be punished.”
Israel’s war with regional rivals escalated significantly on April 1 when suspected Israeli warplanes bombed the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital, an attack that Iran said killed seven military advisers.
“When they attacked the consulate, it was as if they attacked our land,” Khamenei said in a speech marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. He added: “The evil regime made mistakes and must be punished and should be punished. “
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that Israel would respond if Iran attacks Israel from its own territory, in an apparent response to Khamenei.
Katz posted on the social media platform X: “If Iran launches an attack from its own territory, Israel will respond and launch an attack in Iran.”
Since Israel launched its invasion of Gaza on October 7 after Hamas attacked southern Israel, Iran has backed groups involved in the conflict across the region.
Some 33,360 Palestinians were killed during Israel’s six months of bombing of Gaza. According to Israeli statistics, Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 killed 1,200 people.
The Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah group engages in daily fighting with Israel, while the Iraqi group fires on U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq and Yemen’s Houthi rebels target shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
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