CNN, citing a high-ranking source familiar with Iran’s deliberations, reported Wednesday that Iran plans to respond to the Israeli strike from last weekend, likely before the U.S. presidential election on 5 November.
“The response of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the aggression of the Zionist regime will be definitive and painful,” the source said.
Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei posted on X in Hebrew on Sunday—a day after Israel carried out waves of attacks on targets in his country—that the “Zionist regime made a mistake.”
“It erred in its calculations on Iran,” he posted. “We will cause it to understand what kind of strength, ability, initiative, and will the Iranian nation has.”
Reports out of Iran indicated that the IDF targeted facilities at the Parchin military base located southeast of Tehran. The Guardian reported that the International Atomic Energy Agency believes that Iran has conducted tests of “high explosives that could trigger a nuclear weapon” at the facility.
The paper said another strike hit the Khojir military base, a major missile production site.
Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, told reporters on Sunday that Iran does not seek a total war but will give an “appropriate response” to the strikes believed to have been fired from U.S.-controlled airspace in Iraq by Israeli fighter jets. The U.S. said it was not involved in the operation.
Khamenei accused Israel of exaggerating its success in the Saturday strike, but said it is also wrong to downplay the assault. He also blamed the UN and West for its failures in stopping the genocide in Gaza and Israeli aggression in Lebanon.
Hellbound and Down 