Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday any military action against the Islamic Republic would meet a ferocious response.
"Our enemies, particularly the Zionist regime, America and its allies, should know that any kind of threat and attack or even thinking about any action will be firmly responded to," Khamenei said on state television.
Khamenei, Iran’s most powerful figure, said the nation would retaliate with “fists of iron.”
His comments follow recent media speculation that Israel, with U.S. and U.K. backing, is preparing to launch a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. The latest report on Tehran’s nuclear program by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) suggests that Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, Deputy Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Bagheri told a news conference in Moscow on Thursday that Israel was “too weak politically and economically" to launch an attack on Iran.
“If the Zionist regime attempts this, it will put Israel's existence, not merely legitimacy, in question,” he said.
Bagheri criticized the new IAEA report, which indicates that Tehran has been continuing secret work on nuclear weapon development, as “politically-motivated” and “based on false documents fabricated by Washington.”
Bagheri is in Moscow for talks with Russian national security officials. He is expected to meet with Russian Security Council head Nikolai Patrushev and sign a new bilateral cooperation document.
