Iran’s allies, called the “Axis of Resistance” by Tehran, also have been severely hurt by ongoing Israeli attacks, particularly on Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iran has long used those groups as both an asymmetrical way to attack Israel and as a shield against a direct assault. Some analysts believe those groups want Iran to do more to back them militarily.

Iran, however, has been dealing with its own problems at home, as its economy struggles under the weight of international sanctions and it has faced years of widespread, multiple protests. After Khamenei’s speech, the Iranian rial fell to 691,500 against the dollar, near an all-time low. It had been 32,000 rials to the dollar when Tehran reached its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

General Mohammad Ali Naini, a spokesman for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which controls the ballistic missiles needed to target Israel, gave an interview published by the semi-official Fars news agency just before Khamenei’s remarks were released. In the interview, he warned Iran’s response “will be wise, powerful and beyond the enemy’s comprehension”.

“The leaders of the Zionist regime should look out from the windows of their bedrooms and protect their criminal pilots within their small territory,” Naini warned. Israeli air force pilots appear to have used air-launched ballistic missiles in the October 26 attack.

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Khamenei on Saturday met with university students to mark Students Day, which commemorates a November 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 shah fleeing the country and the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The crowd offered a raucous welcome to Khamenei, chanting: “The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader!” Some also made a hand gesture – similar to a “timeout” signal – given by the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a 2020 speech in which he threatened that American troops who arrived in the Middle East standing up would “return in coffins” horizontally. Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September.

Iran will mark the 45th anniversary of the US embassy hostage crisis on Sunday, following the Persian calendar. The November 4, 1979, storming of the embassy by Islamist students led to the 444-day crisis, which cemented the decades-long enmity between Tehran and Washington that persists today.

AP