Iran Leader: US, Israel Will 'Definitely Receive Teeth-breaking Response’

Tehran: Iran's supreme leader on Saturday threatened US and Israel with "a crushing response" over attacks on Iran and its allies.

"The enemies, both the US and the Zionist regime, should know that they will definitely receive a teeth-breaking response for what they are doing against Iran and the resistance front," Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei said in his address in Tehran on Saturday.

Iranian officials have pledged to avenge Israel's attack targeting two Iranian border cities, Ilam and Khuzestan, as well as central Tehran in the early hours of October 26.

"This is not merely a matter of revenge but a logical action--an approach aligned with religion, ethics, and the Sharia, in accordance with international regulations," Ayatollah Khamenei said.

The Supreme Leader did not elaborate on the timing of the retaliatory attack, nor the scope. The US military operates throughout the Middle East with bases around Islaimic Republic mostly in Arab countries and Turkey. The US also rushed additional troops to the Jewish state to man a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile shield which it provided to Israel for defence against any potential Iranian response.

The 85-year-old leader 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."

But on Saturday addressing a gathering of university students and officials on the occasion to mark the US embassy takeover by Iranian students on November 4, 1979, known as the National Day of the Fight Against Global Arrogance, the Supreme Leader struck a harsher tone.

"We are certainly doing everything necessary to prepare the Iranian nation to stand against arrogance, whether in terms of military readiness, armaments, or political actions, and thank God, our officials are currently engaged in this," he said.

The overall movement of the Iranian people and the country's officials, he said, is "definitely and justly aimed at confronting global arrogance and the criminal apparatus that rules today's world order. Rest assured, there will be no negligence in this regard."

He also referenced the US embassy takeover, saying it was not merely a site for diplomatic and intelligence activity, but rather the headquarters of plotting to destroy the Islamic Revolution.

Iranian students took over the embassy in Tehran, now called in Iran as the "Den of Espionage," less than a year after the Islamic Revolution toppled the US-backed Pahlavi dictatorship in 1979.  

"For the Iranian nation, inspired by Islamic teachings, standing up against oppression is a duty. Confronting arrogance is a duty. Arrogance means comprehensive economic, military, and cultural domination and the humiliation of nations," Ayatollah Khamenei noted.

Iran also commemorates the Nov 4, 1978, incident in which Iranian soldiers opened fire on students protesting the rule of the shah at Tehran University. The shooting killed and wounded several students and further escalated the tensions consuming Iran at the time that eventually led to the US backed shah fleeing the country and the 1979 Islamic Revolution.