Iran warns of ‘stronger response’ to renewed Israeli aggression
Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said on Wednesday that the Israeli regime will receive a stronger response if it launches new strikes on Iran.
“The usurping Zionist regime does not dare to repeat the attack on Iran, and if it makes this mistake, it will receive a stronger response,” Iran’s vice president said during a meeting held in Tehran to review the promotion of science and technology in the country.
His remarks come amid menacing blusters and caveats by Israeli and American officials in the wake of the eruption of protests in Iran in response to the devaluation of national currency.
Protests in Iran broke out last week after shopkeepers in Tehran temporarily closed their businesses to protest the sharp fall of the national currency, which plunged to record lows against the US dollar.
Iranian officials have acknowledged the economic pressure facing the public and said peaceful protests are legitimate. At the same time, they have warned that foreign-backed elements are seeking to exploit the situation and fuel violence.
Iranian Army’s chief commander also warned that escalating rhetoric and threats by enemies will be regarded as a direct threat and will not go unanswered, noting that any mistake by adversaries would trigger a decisive response.
“We will cut off the hand of any aggressor,” Major General Amir Hatami told students at the Army Command and Staff University on Wednesday, days after US President Donald Trump explicitly threatened Iran with military aggression.
If Iran kills protesters, the United States will come to their rescue. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday.
General Hatami added that Iran considers the intensification of the enemies’ rhetoric against the Iranian nation as a threat and will not leave its continuation unanswered.
Hatami underlined that any hostile action against Iran would have far-reaching consequences, stressing that Iran’s Army will act with full force to defend the country’s independence and territorial integrity.
Hatami emphasized that Iran’s Armed Forces are now far more prepared than in the pre-war period, warning that if enemies make a miscalculation, they will face a stronger and more decisive response.
He was referring to a US-Israeli aggression against Iran in June, which killed at least 1,064 people and targeted military and civilian infrastructure in 12 days.
On June 24, Iran managed to impose a halt to the aggression after conducting waves of successful retaliatory operations.
Referring to protests in Iran, Hatami said such protests have no connection to the US president or the “criminal prime minister of the Israeli regime [Benjamin Netanyahu]”.
The army chief said protests are a normal and natural phenomenon in any country, but rapidly turning protests into riots is abnormal and inconsistent with Iran’s “cultured nation,” adding that such developments are the result of enemy planning.