Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned against either exaggerating or minimizing the impact of Israeli’s October 26 retaliatory strikes against Iran.
Speaking on October 27 to the families of Iranian military officers killed in the attack, Khamenei described the strikes as a “miscalculation” by Israel.
However, while he called on government officials to “understand the capability” Iran had, he stopped short of calling for an Iranian response that would extend the series of tit-for-tat strikes between the two archfoes.
“Of course, they are exaggerating,” he said in reference to Israel, which said it successfully carried out "targeted and precise" strikes on military sites.
“Exaggerating them is wrong, but minimizing them is also wrong,” Khamenei said, adding that Iran cannot just say that “it was nothing, it didn’t matter.”
Tehran has asked Switzerland, which holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, to call an extraordinary session to condemn Israel following the air strikes, which came in retaliation for Iranian rocket strikes earlier this month.
While Iranian officials have insisted that Iranian defenses intercepted most of the projectiles that Israel fired, they also said four Iranian military officers were killed in the attacks.
The strikes did not target Iranian nuclear or oil-production facilities, as some had expected.
U.S. President Joe Biden on October 26 defended Israel’s right to defend itself but also expressed concern that the tit-for-tat strikes between the two bitter enemies could lead to a wider Middle East war.
Iran had been on edge for several weeks, with many government officials and observers around the globe saying they expected Israel to hit back after Iran fired around 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1.
Tehran said that those strikes were in retaliation for an earlier attack by Israel that were part of military actions against Iran-allied groups -- mainly Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, triggered the current war in the Gaza Strip when its fighters crossed into Israel on October 7, 2023, and killed some 1,200 people. They also took 251 Israeli hostages.
The Israeli retaliatory war has devastated Gaza and killed more than 40,000 people, according to Hamas-led Palestinian authorities.
Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets and drones into Israel, saying it would continue the action until the fighting in Gaza is stopped.
Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, while the EU blacklists its armed wing but not its political party. Hezbollah's political party has seats in the Lebanese parliament.
Most of Hezbollah’s leadership has been wiped out in Israel air strikes since late September.