Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei commended the Iranian armed forces for its April 14 attack on Israel in a meeting with top Iranian military commanders on Sunday.
Khamenei, who is commander-in-chief of the Iranian Armed Forces, expressed appreciation for the military’s “efforts and their success amid the recent developments,” the Tasnim News Agency reported. The armed forces demonstrated their capabilities and “also an admirable image of the Iranian nation,” Khamenei added.
On April 14, Iran launched 300 drones and missiles at Israel in the first-ever direct attack on the Jewish state from Iranian soil. It said it attacked in retaliation for an April 1 strike that killed a top Iranian general in Damascus.
“We have decided to create a new equation,” said Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, The Wall Street Journal reported on April 17. “From now on, if the Zionist regime attacks our interests, assets, officials and citizens anywhere, we will reciprocally attack it from within Iran.”
Israel, together with its allies, shot down 99% of the Iranian missiles and drones. Khamenei said the effectiveness of the attack wasn’t the issue: “How many missiles were launched and how many of them hit their target is not the primary issue, what really matters is that Iran demonstrated its power during that operation.”
He urged the armed forces to continue innovating and “not stand idle even for a moment” in its quest to develop new weapons and tactics in reaction to the “enemy’s methods.”
Israel retaliated to the attack with a limited missile strike on April 19.
