Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to target Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaking while visiting the Ramon Air Force Base in the Negev desert with Prime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the commander of the Israel Air Force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, on Sunday.
“I want to send a clear message to the dictator Khamenei: If you continue to threaten Israel, our long hand will reach Tehran again and with even greater powers, and this time to you personally. Don’t threaten lest you get hurt,” Katz said.
Katz thanked the Air Force personnel at the base for their work during “Operation Rising Lion,” the 12-day mission to destroy Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile facilities last month.
“You opened the skies to Tehran and repeatedly hit the head of the Iranian octopus and removed annihilationist threats against the State of Israel,” he said.
On July 16, Khamenei warned that Iran is ready to respond to any renewed military action against it.
The Islamic Republic “not only does not fear America—it instills fear in it,” the ayatollah declared in his second public appearance since the June 13-24 war with Israel.
“Although we consider the Zionist regime a cancer and the U.S. a criminal due to its support of that regime, we did not seek war,” he said. “Yet whenever the enemy attacked, our response was forceful and firm.”
Although Israel’s opening strike against the Islamic Republic wiped out Tehran’s top military command, including its chief of staff, and Israel went on to rapidly attain aerial superiority, Khamenei insisted Israel had been “brought to its knees” and “desperately turned to the U.S.” to strike the regime’s key nuclear facilities on June 22, referring to “Operation Midnight Hammer,” the U.S. bombing of Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
In retaliation, Iran fired 14 missiles at the American military’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on June 23, warning the U.S. ahead of time that it would do so, according to President Donald Trump. The U.S. said it intercepted 13 of the projectiles and allowed another to crash off-target. The Iranian attack resulted in no casualties.
Khamenei nevertheless described Tehran’s counterattack against the U.S. as “significant” and said that “once media censorship is lifted, it will become clear how great a blow Iran delivered,” adding, “Of course, even bigger blows could be dealt to the U.S. and others.”
Khamenei, 86, went into hiding during the Israeli operation. He did not emerge from seclusion until July 5.
A week before his public appearance, Khamenei released a pre-recorded video message in which he praised what he described as a “victory” over Israel and the United States.
The supreme leader warned that Iran would exact “a heavy price” for any future aggression. “Our country is strong and will never surrender,” he said.
